A memory unforgotten
by xofallingxinxlovexo
Summary: 16year-old orphan Stephanie is a normal girl but after being emotionally hurt by the death of her friends she chooses 2 join the undead rather than accepting death,then she slowly starts falling for Gabriels apprentice Jake and holds the key to the undead
1. The past or future?

Chapter One:

Chapter One:

'It takes a few seconds to say hello but it takes forever to say goodbye.' That quote has been in the family for generations but I never really thought anything of it, well, until _that _day.

I was in the hospital just sitting in a blue chair waiting. I was about ten and my mother was lying in bed on the edge of death. I was sure every second that passed was an inch closer to death and it frightened me greatly. I had a great understanding as a child when I was spoke to about life and death and I am still aware of all of those things that I was told. My father was silently sitting in the seat beside me. I could feel how tense he was and as hard as he tried to hide it I could see tears in his eyes, he knew what was going to happen and that there was no way of avoiding it. My mother was dying. My Aunt Rita and Uncle Jon were there as well, all of us, silent. We sat just outside of my mother's room where await her death. We were sitting silently looking in each other's eyes trying to find something to talk about that would take mom off our minds. All of a sudden there was a loud long beep and seconds later doctors were running in and out of her room. All of us stood up and ran into her room at the same time. As I watched the doctors try to shock her to life tears filled my eyes and in a matter of five seconds everything was blurry. My blue eyes seemed even more crystal-like as water filled them. My long dark brown hair was getting in my face as I rubbed away the tears.

"MOM!" I screamed as my father held me back. I tried to get to my mother, beckoning her to wake and play with me. Even though I denied it I knew she was gone. All of the doctors were clearing the room sorrowfully. I broke my father's strong grip and ran over to my mother who was lying peacefully in her bed. I ran over to her and grabbed her hand, it was ice cold. "Mom! Please mom! Wake up! Wake up and play with me!" I screamed putting on a shaken smile. When I saw she wasn't moving or even getting warmer I crouched down still grasping her hand and cried silently. I was crying, dying inside, hoping, when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder. I broke my grip from my mother to rub my eyes then I looked up expecting it to be my father but it wasn't. Staring down at me was a doctor, I had no idea why he had still been there but I didn't care. I stood up and stared up at him as tears flooded my eyes.

After what seemed my eternity the doctor picked me up and held me in his arms like my mother had done. I lost it, I sobbed into the doctors' white jacket and he tightened his grip. I knew at that time my father had looked back with red eyes and saw me sobbing into the doctor's shoulder. I felt like we were walking but I ignored it as I kept crying.

"I'm just going to give her something that will comfort her." I heard the doctor say to my father.

The doctor walked around the hospital until I had calmed down enough to speak to him. We were in his office thing and he sat me down on a little black couch and handed me a tissue. I whipped my eyes and then looked straight at him. He was on one of those twisting chairs and he was sitting across from me about a foot away.

"Umn…who are you?" I asked.

"Well formal aren't we?" He paused then showed a small smirk. He was very handsome and I blushed when he smirked at me. He chuckled under his breath. "Anyway, my name is Gabriel. I was your mothers' doctor." He paused once again and his smirk vanished. "You really don't know do you?" He stated, than asked.

"Know what?" I asked wanting to see that smirk.

He hesitated which worried me. He sighed, "Stephanie." He said and I felt him staring at my neck. I immediately knew what he meant.

Before he could say anything I started. "I know what you are." I said and that stunned him. "I know a lot about your kind, I'm just not sure why you chose to talk to me about this." He gave me a smirk again and this time I blushed even more of which he could see perfectly.

"So you know about me do you? And what do you mean by 'kind'?" He asked.

"To answer your first question yes I do and your second question," I said but stopped. As much as I loved vampires I never really thought about actually meeting one. "You are a vampire are you not?" I asked.

"You really are smart." He teased. "But yes I am, and I also know who you are, I've known you your whole life. I've looked over you since you were born. I promised myself that when your mother died that I should find the courage to explain all of this to you." He said.

"Wait, I understand all of that but… why me?" I asked a little confused. I felt a tingle in my stomach which made me blush.

He got up from his chair and came closer to me. He was right next to my ear; I could feel his warm breath. "Stay quiet." He said then moved my hair away and undid my pink button up dress.

I blushed like crazy and my head spun. Then I felt my sleeve slide down my arm to show my bare neck. I then felt his cold lips on my neck, then his teeth. I cringed a little at first and grabbed a hold of his shirt. It hurt but the pain gradually soothed as I felt as if I were falling.

"Gabriel." I managed to sigh which made him look up and realize what he was doing and how much blood he had taken.

"Sorry, I didn't realize." He said apologetically.

I grabbed my neck where he had inserted his fangs, it was numb.

He leaned down once again.

"Wait, you're not going to 'bite' me again are you?!" I asked and blushed madly.

He chuckled sweetly. His lips were only a few centimeters away from mine and I blushed even more as the thought ran through my mind. "No, I'm going to put you to sleep." He said.

"Wait what do-"I said but was cut off as a pair of cold lips pressed against mine. I passed out and after that I woke up in my bedroom and never saw him again.

After a month of suffering from the ddeath of my mother my father committed suicide shooting himself in the head and I was forced to live with my aunt. I can't say living with my aunt and uncle was necessarily a bad thing. But we constantly moved because my uncle was the head officer in the police force and when I started high school we moved to Coventry and so did my friend Sam. We promised that if either of us moved the other would follow and her parents and my 'guardians' agreed that we shouldn't be separated. And now I am currently a member of Coventry High a sophomore to be exact.

It was six o' clock p.m. and I was at the park sitting on a swing. Much time has passed since my father's death and within that time I stopped talking. When I was in school never talked to anyone but my grades were above average. I have a few friends that I sometimes talk to. It was fall and I wore my school uniform. It was a long sleeve and skirt. It was gray, I had a bow tie thing that was tied to my chest, and it was a black bow. I had a gray hat with white bows on the side. My long dark brown hair was waving in the wind. I looked down at my cell phone. My aunt thought that if I had a cell phone I would start talking again. It was gray with black lining. I had a 'chococat' charm that I attached to the antenna.

I looked down just listening to the wind and the season of fall just beginning. I guess I was expecting my friend Sam to call right about now. She was my only friend when I first started school and she has been ever since. She was the one who comforted me when we had recess and I would sit on the swing and just cry over anything. I was such a crybaby when I was younger. Now all I do is ignore all of my emotions so I don't have to feel that pain anymore. But, sometimes the pain leaks through. When I do feel the pain and can't block it out, well I cause myself pain to rid the emotional pain. I looked at my cell phone, the time read '6:12 P.M'. I was about to get up and run back to my house. I didn't have track or Tai Kwan do practice so I was just killing time sitting on the swing. I didn't have to be home until seven, but I figured that if I stayed all I would be doing is wasting time. I also had the report on Rome that I had to do for Mr. Valencort's history class that was due tomorrow. I had no problem remembering anything, I can still remember everything that I had learned and what happened since age five. I remember every trip to the hospital with my dad to see how my mother was doing. I already knew everything I needed to know about Rome so all there was to do was to type it out and press print. I was the top student in the school, all of my teachers wanted me to move up a few grades but I wanted to stay with Sam and my own grade. For some odd reason I can remember everything, I am unable to forget anything now. It's only natural for me to go with what happens in my everyday life.

"Why are you sitting out here all alone?" I heard a voice say from in front of me. I looked up slowly. Before me was a boy about my age maybe a little older. He like me wore all black. He had a black short sleeve shirt and pants. He had dark short brown hair with medium length bangs that were parted on either side of his face and light brown eyes that when in light looks like they were yellow. As I looked at this mysterious boy I had the feeling as if I had seen him somewhere before but couldn't remember.

I hesitated to answer but then I opened my mouth and answered him in a soft gentle voice. "I was just sitting here thinking."

He walked over to the swing next to mine and he sat down.

"I'm Jake Connor. I just moved here a few days ago." He looked around the street lights were dimly lit. "It's quiet around here." He said bringing his attention back to me. "So, what's your name?" He asked with a kind smile.

I looked at him unemotionally. He was just like everyone else, talkative not knowing the true meaning of pain. I shrugged off the sudden hate for him, I didn't even know this boy ten minutes ago and yet he's talking to me as if we've known each other for our whole lives. "Stephanie Ayame." I said. My voice was so soft that it sounded like it was a whisper that was fading in the silence.

He looked straight into my eyes. His eyes seemed to show that he was a little on edge of my name, as if he had heard it before and knew what danger within me that has only been dormant eager to awaken. "Steph, cool name." He said. His voice sounded a little shaky at times.

"I better get going; my aunt is probably waiting for me." I said standing up. My hair was down to the end of my rib cage and curled at the bottom. It waved in the air as I stood up. My skirt slowly flapped around playfully from the cool air brushing against it lightly. I looked back over my shoulder to look at Jake.

"Well…latter then." He said to me.

I looked back and walked home. As I walked through the park and my neighborhood I thought about that boy, Jake.

'_Why had I gotten the feeling as if I had seen him before?' _I thought to myself. When I reached my house it was six, fifty-eight. I opened the door and walked in. Before I stepped on the hardwood floor I took my shoes off and placed them by my aunts. My uncle wasn't home yet, so I assumed he was just working late. He was the head of the police force and he often came home late. I stepped onto the hardwood floor and walked into the kitchen.

My aunt was chopping some carrots and lettuce, probably for my uncle to have when he got back from work. "Hi sweetie. Welcome home!" My aunt said to me then turned around to look at me. "How was school? Did anything interesting happen today?" She asked cheerfully. I stood there looking at her unemotionally.

"No…not really…nothing to talk about." I said softly then took a step to go up to my room when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked behind me but no one was there.

"Oh, Stephanie, you say the same thing every day." My aunt said putting her hands on her waist. She has shoulder length blond hair and she had a baby blue dress on with her perfectly white apron on. She sighed as I looked over at her. "So, do you want anything to eat?" She asked.

"No thanks, I'm not that hungry." I said then resumed on up the stairs to my room. I walked into my room and opened my window and sat down on my window seat. I looked at the newly starlit sky and the awakening moon. I looked over at my clean organized desk. There my computer laid dormant eager to awaken and be used. I stood up and walked over to my computer very calmly. I sat down in my black chair and turned my computer on. It only took a few minutes to wake completely. I opened up 'Microsoft Word' and started typing my report. A few minutes had gone by and I was in the middle of typing my report when I felt a small warm draft and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I felt as if someone was watching me. I looked at my arms and softly traced down my arm with my hand. I had goosebumps all over my arm. I looked up and around my room then I realized the window was still open. I stood up and closed the window and locked it shut. I held my arms as I got that uneasy feeling the feeling you get when you watch a scary movie in the darkness of the night. I scanned the room once again then resumed my attention to the computer. As I typed I felt a hand on my shoulder once again. I turned around thinking it was my aunt but as I looked I saw no one there. I felt two hands on both of my shoulders then I felt soft ice cold breath brush up against my ear.

"You will be awakened soon….my princess." I heard this guy say softly. It was a familiar voice; I wouldn't be able to forget his voice…ever. It was the voice of the vampire Gabriel. I turned to speak to him and then everything went black.


	2. Refuse to believe

Chapter Two:

_Chapter Two:_

I awoke at the sound of my alarm clock going off. 'BEEP, BEEP!' My alarm whined. I stood up and turned it off. I looked back at my computer groggily. My report was 5 pages long already and I hadn't printed it out yet. I thought I had finished it the night before, _'hadn't I?' _I thought to myself. _'Could I have fallen asleep while I was typing'_? I walked over to my computer and looked at it. The light illuminating from the screen was a bit overpowering but I ignored the sudden sharp pain I felt in my eyes. I had already finished most of the paper but I was in the middle of typing a sentence about the Romans and their intricate architecture.

I placed my hands on the keys very lightly and started typing the last few sentences of my report.

I once again looked at the clock; it was six thirteen a.m.

I took the mouse carefully in my hand and moved it so the cursor was on print. I clicked on it and within a few seconds my report was finished printing. I stapled the papers together and put them inside my black bag. As I dug out my history binder I found a small folded up paper. I took it out and opened it.

'Dear my darling Steph,' it read.

'I have noticed that you're one of Coventry High's best students, but a quiet one at that. You don't have many friends and the one's you do have you keep them distant from you. I have wondered about you for quite a long time now. But none the less I have come up with no way to impress you. You are a complex girl with a brain of a genius and the looks of a goddess. Look, it's straight and to the point…I love you.

-Signed Anonymous'

I sighed and closed my eyes at the same time.

"Another stupid pathetic love note from some geek." I said opening my eyes and ripping the note in half. I placed it in the waist basket. I grabbed my history binder and placed the papers in one of the side pockets. Then I got dressed and left for school.

_Coventry High is only a few blocks away from where Sam and I live. I walked to Sam's house (that was just next door we got a good deal on the area) then we walked to school together. _We walked out of the house. We walked side-by-side down the street; it was fairly silent except for the chirping birds and the sound of a new day. I stopped for some odd reason and then once again I felt those hands on my shoulders like Gabriel had done. I turned around quickly but like all the other times no one was there, and that's when I remembered what happened last night.

((Flash back))

As I typed I felt a hand on my shoulder once again. I turned around thinking it was my aunt but as I looked I saw no one there. I felt two hands on both of my shoulders then I felt soft ice cold breath brush up against my ear.

"You will be awakened soon….my princess." I heard Gabriel say softly. Then everything went black.

((End of flash back))

I shook my head and started walking again. I didn't want to believe that what I thought had happened last night really happened. But for some reason I couldn't get the feeling like I was being watched out of my head which made it feel more likely. I kept looking down trying to figure out what that guy that I thought was Gabriel meant when he said I would 'awaken soon' and especially the part where he said 'my princess'. It was all to fairy-tallish, like it was one of those stories where the princess is trapped in a castle and is unable to escape just lying asleep waiting for her true love to come and wake her with a kiss. I was only a mile away from my school when I heard a rustle in the bushes beside me. I stopped in pure consternation. I slowly turned my head only to see a tall tree with small shrubs around it. I slowly walked over to the tree curious to know what was rustling the shrubs. I looked around the tree but didn't see anything. I sighed in relief but got chills as I felt a warm hand on my left shoulder. I slowly turned my head and there behind me was a blood-covered man. I swallowed hard but then turned around. It was then when Sam realized I wasn't beside her any longer and she looked back only to see the bloodied man. She of course screamed like a little child and ran leaving me alone with the strange man who obviously needed help.

"What happened to you?" I asked as my voice cracked a little not in fear but more in shock.

"My princess it's truly you." The man said then fell to his knees. He was dying before me.

"W-what are you talking about? I'm not a princess!" I said. Then my eyes narrowed. "That doesn't matter I have to get you to a hospital quickly!" I said as I tried to get my hands under the man to pick him up.

"Wait." He said as I looked at him. His face had deep scratches across his face and his stomach was ripped open. This man was bleeding to death.

"What the hell are you talking about!? You will die if I don't get you to a hospital you are bleeding for god's sake!" I said as I pushed my hands under the bleeding middle aged man.

"I don't care if I die, just as long as I fulfill my duty and am able to die in the arms of my princess." He said as he put a hand to my cheek. I felt tears filling the corners of my eyes. I didn't want to feel this way, to feel the pain again. I had no idea why I felt like I knew him as if we were close friends. All I knew was that I couldn't let him die. "Here" He said taking a crystal out from his shirt. "Wear this." He said putting it around my neck. The crystal was actually a necklace. The crystal looked like a faded blue tear drop.

"What's this?" I asked as my voice started cracking again.

"You will understand soon enough." He said.

"Enough! I can get you to my school and from there we can get you to the hospital okay?" I said. I stood up as the man's body slammed against my chest. I started running toward the school. It only took about a minute for me to reach the school. By then my school uniform was soaked with blood. As I entered the school grounds everyone stopped their conversations and started at me. I rushed into the school as blood trickled down my leg and my arms leaving a trail of blood on the white tile floor. I reached the principal's office and kicked the door open breaking the hinges.

The principle looked up in shock then at my now bloodied face and the dying man in my arms.

"Oh my god." The principle said softly.

"Mr. Valencort please this man needs help call 911 quickly!" (Mr. Valencort is my history teachers' brother that's how he got into the school department) I said placing the body on one of the cots the nurse had left in the office. I stood next to the man as tears ran down my face. I sobbed quietly as the principle called for an ambulance.

"Yes, please hurry." Mr. Valencort said then hung up the phone.

"Miss. Ayame are you hurt? Would you like to sit down?" He asked me. I rubbed my eyes clearing them.

"No." I said shakily. I stood there as the principle walked over to me. I then realized that I was still wearing the crystal necklace. I put my hand up to the necklace slowly. When my fingertips touched the crystal I fell back and fainted.

I awoke at the sound of sirens. I opened my eyes slowly but everything was blurred. I remembered what had happened with the man. I sat up quickly and saw students surrounding the scene and then I saw paramedics.

"Please miss lay back down. We have to get you to the hospital." One of the paramedics said to me.

"Wait what happened to the man?" I asked as everything got even more blurry.

"We're truly sorry miss; he died before we arrived here." She said. I couldn't see her face because everything was blurred.

"No." I said softly as tears formed in my eyes.

"I'm fine really." I said sitting up. I swung my legs off of the cot and stood up. I fell to my knees.

"Steph!" Sam screamed running over to me crying.

"I'm fine." I said standing up.

"Let's get you to the girl's locker room." Sam said trying to smile but she was sobbing so much she couldn't force herself to smile.

We walked to the locker room with her help. Everyone moved out of the way to let us pass.

I sat down on one of the benches. Sam sat down beside me.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"Nothing." I said as I regained my vision. I heard the locker room door open.

"Miss. Ayame?" It was the principle voice.

I didn't answer.

"Yes, she's in here." Sam said for me.

I heard footsteps come closer to us.

"Here, you can use this uniform until we get your other one cleaned." He said handing Sam the uniform. "That is if you want to stay of course." He said with a sympathetic smile.

All I could do is nod.

"Okay then, ugh, you can take a shower here." He said. "Sam can you stay with her? I'll tell your teachers that you will be a little late for class and I'll call your aunt." He said then walked away.

"Please don't!" I said before he closed the door behind him. He turned around. "Please don't call her." I pleaded.

"Oh, ugh…okay." He said.

I didn't hear anything for a while then the door closed.

"C'mon, let's get you fixed up." Sam said.

We walked over to the shower area I closed the door and threw my uniform over the stall so it hung on the door of the stall. I placed the clean uniform on the hanger. I turned the water on. I sighed as the warm water grazed my body washing away the blood and with it the pain. The warmth relaxed me.

"So, umn…" Sam said trying to start a conversation. "Umn… Mrs. DeMello says we are getting a new transfer student today." She said. I blocked her out. I placed my face directly under the warm water. The warmth was relaxing but at the same time horrible. I thought of my mother and my father then of the man. I remembered the necklace and what happened when I touched it. I looked down at the crystal I took it in my hand and looked at it examining it more closely. It had a small orb with a blue flame in it that I hadn't noticed before but it had the same blue tint in it that made it look like a faded light blue.

When I was finished I got out and put the clean uniform on. I looked at the crystal as Sam did my hair. She took a chunk of hair from each side of my head and pulled it back and tied it with a blue ribbon. She tied the ribbon in a bow and let it hang down. When we walked back to class I looked inside each class up to our class, class 32B, ELA. I opened the door and Mrs. DeMello turned her head toward us.

"Hello girls, why don't you take a seat. Oh Stephanie, can I have a word with you outside please." She said walking out the door. Sam sat in her seat beside John.

I walked out the door before Mrs. DeMello.

"Yes Mrs. DeMello?" I said.

I looked beside her and there was the guy who I saw the night before. I thought about his name… 'Jake'

"This is-"

"Jake ." I finished.

"Ugh yes, how did you know?"

"We talked the other night in the park; we live not too far from each other." Jake said.

"Oh, well Steph can you stay with Jake and show him the ropes around here?" Her voice got a little softer as she came down to my ear. "I know about what happened this morning so maybe this interaction could help." She whispered. She rose her voice again. "Anyway, he has the same classes as you and the principle has talked with all your teachers and you will be sitting beside him in all of your classes." Mrs. DeMello said with her cheery voice.

Jake and I walked in the classroom side by side. I sat in my seat as Mrs. DeMello introduced Jake to the class. I thought he had already done that before I had got back. He told the class his name and that he was home schooled until now and that he was 16. His birthday is on the same day as mine; May sixteenth. He sat down behind me and stayed silent for most of the class. It was ten minutes until the bell rang and we would walk to our 'specials' class. For me it was chorus where I played the violin, sometimes the piano and sang. All of a sudden Jake raised his hand and asked if he could go to the bathroom. He stood up and as he walked past my desk laid a note on the edge of it. He didn't look back at me he just kept walking.

I grabbed the note and opened it in the hollow part of the desk so Mr. Jones wouldn't see. Sam who sat beside me looked at me.

"Pst!" She beckoned me. I looked over at her.

'What?' I mouthed Mr. Jones was very strict when he wanted to be especially if you are talking when he's teaching.

"What does it say? Is it another love note?" She whispered.

"Leave me alone." I said then looked back at the note and silently read it.

"Steph,

Please I need to talk to you; it's about what happened this morning. This probably will sound weird but you need to understand that I'm not making these things up.

-Jake"

I tried to think about what he was going to say. But every time I thought about it I kept thinking it was too odd. I wrote back saying to meet me at the courtyard after the class.

After class I met him in the courtyard where the students could walk to their next class while looking at the garden.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked softly.

"That necklace, the man gave it to you correct? How did you react to it when you put it on?" He asked pointing to the orb around my neck.

I didn't get where he was going with this. "I fainted, is this conversation over?"

He sighed a little. "Yes" I was about to walk away when Jake grabbed my wrist making it unable to leave. "Wait." He said.

I looked straight ahead a little shocked.

He slowly let go of my wrist. "Never mind, we should get to math." He said as I nodded. We walked to class together. I felt his eyes staring at me as we walked to class.


	3. A new life

Chapter Two:

_Chapter Three:_

After school I walked to the park alone. I wanted to be alone, just me and the silence surrounding me. 'Alone' I thought about the word. I clenched the swing that I was sitting in. I was alone in the dim light. I tried to forget about all that happened but it just seemed I couldn't stop thinking and my head was spinning now. I dropped my head onto my hand and sighed. It was then that I wondered about what Jake was trying to tell me. I was being a little rude then but I just wasn't ready to hear anything more upsetting. I stood up and walked down the street just thinking. I felt as if someone was watching me. I rubbed my arms as more and more goose bumps ran up and down my arms sending a chill down my spine. I passed my house unknowingly and kept walking like something was drawing me to this area. I didn't stop walking even when the sun went down. I kept walking until I came to a wood area. I looked around cautiously feeling like I was being followed. I thought I heard a voice behind me and I turned around freaking out.

"Who's there?" I said softly a little scared.

Suddenly a voice came from behind me.

"Kiss me." It said softly.

I didn't turn around because I was shuddering in fear.

I felt arms embrace me and then cold lips on my neck. My memories went all the way back to my mom's death, when Gabriel bit my neck. I felt the arms around me lowered to my pant line crissed crossed across my waist. I realized that it wasn't a vampire and pushed myself away from this _thing_. I looked at my pursuer and I was shocked.

"Aww, Steph what's wrong?" Erik said.

"Erik you pervert!" I said feeling my neck where he kissed me.

"Aww c'mon Steph you know you want to make out with me." He said pecking me on the lips teasingly.

I blushed madly. "No! I don't want to make out with you!" I said trying to regain composer.

Erik has short dark brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. He's a little taller than me. He was semi- popular and every girl wanted to make love to him. I couldn't stand how conceded he was. And I couldn't stand how he always tried to get with me. Yeah he was popular and sort of cute but we were friends and that's all I wanted from him and nothing more. He wore an 'Abercrombie' tan shirt with dark jeans.

"Fine, but you know as well as I do that one day… you'll want me and finally make out with me." He said being the smart-ass he is.

I really couldn't remember how many times he's kissed me on the lips; he's done it so many times. Although he kissed me I never let it get any farther.

"Hmm if that's true why are you stalking me?" I asked challenging him.

He didn't answer and I smirked.

"This conversation is over." I said and turned around. When I took a step away from him I accidently bumped into something or _someone._ I was falling but before I landed the person I bumped into caught me. "Thanks, and sorry about that." I said.

"It's fine." He said. I knew that voice. "Steph what are you doing out here all by yourself?" Jake asked.

"Jake?" I asked looking up. I could see a faint outlive of him.

"Yeah." He pulled me onto his chest hugging me protectively; I could feel him staring at Erik.

The warmth of his body was welcoming and comfortable. I laid my head on his chest and let out a soft short sigh.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Erik asked.

Jake and Erik were new friends and I felt awkward leaning up against Jake's chest.

Jake ignored his question and there was a long pause.

"Let my girl go." Eirk said. I felt Jake looking down at me then at Erik once more.

"She's not _your_ girl." Jake said defensively.

"Really then what? She's your girl?" Erik challenged.

"No." He said simply. "She's neither of ours." He said.

"Why are you here anyway?" Erik asked.

"I was just taking a walk and saw you two." Jake said truthfully. "I wanted to see what was going on."

"Really…" Erik said sarcastically.

"Yeah really." Jake said assuring.

"Whatever I'm tired and I'm going home." I said walking away from them. I didn't get far because I was stopped by their yelling.

"WAIT!" They said in unison.

I turned around, "What is it now?" I asked getting irritated.

"Let me walk you home." They said once again in unison.

"Hey! I'm walking her home!" Erik said facing Jake.

"No, I'm walking her home! Plus who knows what you might do when you get to her house." Jake said. Anger was deep within his voice.

"Will you two just shut up!?" I said yelling over their argument.

They stopped and looked at me.

"I'll walk home by myself." I said and turned my back on them. I heard them arguing as I walked away from the two but I ignored their yells.

When I got home I went up to my room and laid down on my bed. I felt the urge to go into the forest, like there was something there that I needed to find. It was an odd feeling.

It took me a few minutes but at 11:23pm I sneaked out of the house. I knew it was probably a bad idea but I had to go. I grabbed my black sling backpack. It went around my chest diagonally. I put an extra flash light, blanket, another jacket, and two water bottles in it I wanted to be prepared I had watched way to many horror movies.

I opened my window and crawled out being as quiet as I could. I fell to the ground making a small sigh. I walked all the way to the forest and paused. I sighed as I turned the flashlight on and ventured into the woods.

I was about an hour after I first entered the woods but still all I saw was trees and plants. As I walked I heard a rustle in a bush beside me. I turned quickly feeling my heart bead hard in my chest I think it skipped a beat at that time. I looked around a bit shaken up and saw a worn out cottage probably from long ago in the 1800's. It was huge like a mansion with green vines running about the whole cottage. It was built on a large tree that went straight through the cottage.

The more I stared at this mansion, cottage thing, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I got a random chill. I gulped shaking off the eerie feeling and started walking toward the cottage. There was a walkway of tiny pebbles from where grass was growing. I had to climb a latter to get up but when I reached the door I looked around; _nothing _I thought. _Why is a cottage way out here in the woods? Wouldn't you want to live near a town so you could buy food and stuff? … Who lives here anyway? _

As my thoughts trailed I didn't notice a yellow envelope worn from age on the old wood of the door. I looked back at the door and saw the envelope wedged in the crack of the door; it looked as if it had been there for some time fighting the elements.

I grabbed it and opened it. I shined the light of the flashlight on it. Inside was a piece of paper like computer paper but much harder. I took it out and looked at it. It was a letter…to _me_. I read it:

_Stephanie,_

_You have found my cottage. You will need what is attached to this letter. Be careful._

The letter wasn't signed and sounded as if this person was watching my every move. I looked inside the old yellow envelope and found an old key. I put the letter in my backpack and stared at the key, examining the structure. I tried it on the door but it didn't fit, I had no idea what the key was for but obviously it was for me to use on something…but what is that _something_?

It was silver and had double teeth and a circle handle. It looked new but it was one of those things where you knew it was old. It was fairly small like a pendant so I put it on the chain along with the crystal that I had gotten from the man.

When I was finished putting the key on I opened the door. It creaked from age which sent a chill down my spine. It looked like a normal cottage but old. It had a sink, kitchen; table everything you would need for a house. I walked over to the table; it had a vase with withered flowers on it. I took a look around the main floor of the cottage but stopped in my tracks as I came to a winding stair well. I thought long if I should see what was up there. After many minutes I made up my mind, I was curious to know what was up there even though I knew I should have just left for home. This was the beginning of a new bloody life.


	4. Not an accident

Chapter Four:

_Chapter Four:_

Each step I took there was an eerie creak beneath me. As I walked around the upper hallway I thought I could hear a piano playing. It didn't make the place seem scary it seemed peaceful and its music soothed me. When I came to a dead end the playing stopped and before me I saw a black piano with one white rose on it. My body started moving toward the piano unwillingly. I sat down and started playing a song that I've never herd before. I had taken piano lessons when I was ten but stopped when I started moving to other places; but I never even knew I could play as good as I was playing now. I stopped when I realized that I had to get home. I checked my watch it was 12:38pm. I stood up and walked away leaving the piano behind. As I walked back I wondered what had possessed me to play the piano dazed as I was. I thought about it for many minutes but then shook off my suspicions.

I was about half way home when I got a chill like when you know someone is watching you. I took a few more steps forward hearing leaves and branches crunch beneath my feet. I stopped abruptly when I heard a sudden growling behind me. I looked at my feet already knowing that it wasn't me making the noise. I turned around hoping it was nothing. But when I was turned completely around my eyes meet that of a white, growling, and hungry looking wolf. I took a step back never taking my eyes off of the wolf but it took a step forward making my nerves even sharper.

My breathing got heavier and heavier making it almost impossible to breathe. My heart beat got faster beating like a drum in my chest. My heart beat rang in my ears like the school bell. I thought about it for a few seconds and when then wolf took another step forward I got the message that he was getting impatient so I turned and started running. The wolf was right on my tail and I started freaking out. I was trying to calm down but my nerves got the best of me and I ran in the totally opposite direction zigzagging around the woods. While I was running I didn't realize the wolf getting closer and closer gaining on me. Then out of nowhere the wolf pounced. For a split second I turned when the the sound of panting and footsteps of thhe wolf ceaced. Bad Idea. The wolf pounced pinning me on the ground. I was facing the wolf staring in its dark red eyes. I thought I saw something familiar about this wolf but couldn't stop and think of what it was for I was too frightened. The wolf growled in my face and swiped me with its rough paw making large deep cuts on my cheek. It stung a little but I could barely feel it as my vision blurred. The wolf came in for the killer blow when I saw a faded version of a person or thing knock the wolf off of me.

As the figure came closer to me checking to see if I was going to be alright I could see the better features come into play. It was a girl about my age; she had light brown hair in all disarray with twigs, leaves and dirt tangled within the fine hair. She had green eyes and dirt on her face.

"Hang on! I'll help you!" I only caught a glimpse of what she was saying when I was welcomed into complete darkness.

My eyes strained as I woke opening them to see a starlit sky. I sat up cringing at the bruises and small cuts on my body. My chest hurt as I looked around turning to my right. I saw the trees of the woods and all the nocturnal life. I turned to my left spotting a fire about two feet away; I could feel its comforting warmth. My eyes lingered on the bright fire as I tried to remember where I was. '_Oh I'm in the woods…that girl' _I thought remembering the girl that saved me. I got up holding my head dizzily as the cuts stung on the side of my face. I looked around when I gained control of the pain but couldn't find her anywhere. I looked at my watch wondering what time it was. 2:03 Am. I forgot about the girl and headed for home. I needed sleep badly. After everything that had happened I was worried.

Dazed in my thoughts I didn't notice a dark figure in front of me. I kept walking oblivious to my surroundings and bumped into the figure. I looked up about to say sorry when I realized that it was the girl that had saved me.

"Oh! I'm sorry; I guess I was just a bit dazed. Ugh, thanks for saving me back there." I said blushing.

I looked up at her face; the look in her eyes was different. They looked fierce as if they would reach out and kill me right then and there.

"Ugh, I'm Stephanie." I said trying my hardest to sound friendly and social.

"I know who you are, and don't understand why you're here." She said. The sharpness of her voice was annoying and it got me angry. I gritted my teeth brushing it off.

"I don't really know why I'm here I just kindda thought I needed to come." I put my hand on the back of my head and grimaced. She didn't move. "Sounds stupid huh?" I asked giving up trying to sound social.

"You obviously don't understand. Why do you think that wolf attacked you?" She asked. I looked around dropping my hand to my side. I hadn't a clue why that wolf had attacked I was hoping she could tell me that.

"I see." Is all she said then there was a silence between us. She grabbed my throat and squeezed hard. I grabbed her wrist and her eyes turned yellow. I couldn't breathe and I knew I was going to faint and probably die. By the way she held my throat I could tell she had all intentions of killing me. I fainted and thought I was dead, that is, until I woke up.

I awoke in my bed panting and sweating. I held my head in my hand.

"Just a dream." I said checking my clock. Five minute before the alarm went off. I turned off the alarm and got up. I walked over to my mirror and stopped in my tracks. I saw the reddened deep cuts in my cheek. I touched the cuts and it stung. I ran to the bathroom and got out the peroxide and bandages. I covered the cuts with peroxide and tried my hardest not to scream. It stung and tears formed in the corners of my eyes. I put bandages on it and walked out of the bathroom and into my room. As I changed I winced from the bruises and cuts. I walked downstairs hoping that my aunt wouldn't see the bandages, it was bad enough thinking about what I was going to go through today at school. Too late. My aunt caught a glimpse of me and turned to face me.

"Honey! What happened?" She said holding my shoulders in front of me. She touched the bandage and I cringed when the pressure came in contact to the wound. "Honey! How did this happen?" Her voice was sharp but in a worried kind of way.

"I just fell off my bed and cut my face on my dresser." I lied.

"That has to be seen by a doctor." She said.

"Look!" I said a bit too sharply. "I'm fine I don't need to go to the doctors." I said calming down. '_What the hell was that about!?_' I thought getting annoyed.

"Sweetheart that really needs to be checked out by a doctor it's bleeding a lot." She said.

I hesitated but then agreed to go with her. Even though I hated hospitals I had to agree or my aunt would probably say something that would make me do something I wouldn't normally do. I got to skip half the day but I got stitches and even with the pain killers it hurt a lot. I recognized the doctor. He was the same one that treated my mom but I didn't say much to him about that. It was a sensitive subject for me.

"So…" The doctor 'Rick' began. "You're Stephanie right?" He asked. I nodded. "About your mother…" He hesitated as he tried not to cry. "I'm, really truly, sorry for your loss. We tried our hardest to save her. And the autopsy couldn't find anything that may have taken her life. We believe tha-" He said but I cut in

"My mother had an autopsy done!?" I said sharply getting mad. I looked at my aunt who looked at the doctor angrily. "Why wasn't I told about this!?" I asked feeling the faint effects of the numbness of my cheek.

"We thought it'd be best not to tell you." She said honestly.

"Well it could have been the best for me to know when it happened not to be told lies." I said. I was fed up with all of this. "I'm going to school." I said and walked out.

Of course I wasn't going to school but I needed an excuse to get out of the hospital. I walked to the park; it was the only place that I could think of that I could be alone. I waited for a long time but then got tired of waiting there alone. I checked my phone, it was only twelve twenty one and I decided to go to school.

When I got there it was noon. The first person to spot me was guess-who, Erik.

"Hey Babe." He said putting an arm around my shoulder. He shortly after spotted the bandage. "What happened?" He asked when we sat down. The entire football team was sitting around us. Since Erik was the running back and he was the quarterback Collin's ''main man'' he was really popular, even amongst the chess club which was a big time low for him.

"I just fell down the stairs carrying huge boxes and when I fell the edge of one of the boxes scratched my face. I went to the hospital but came back to school." I said. Erik looked shocked.

"Wait, I thought you hated hospitals ever since your mom's thing." He said.

"I do it's just…my aunt made me go to see a doctor." I said truthfully.

"So are ya gonna be okay?" one of the defense football players said concerned.

"Yeah I'll be fine." I turned my attention to Erik. "Nothing to worry about, okay?" I said to him.

"Yeah yeah." He said.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked as Erik looked somber.

"I have a cut on my tong will you kiss it better?" He said in my face. His breath smelled like beer.

"UGH!" I moaned as I smacked him across the face. The team tried not to laugh.

"Dude!" Collin laughed. "You gotta girlfriend who doesn't even wanna kiss you!" He teased.

Collin was Coventry High's quarterback and my "ex". He had short black hair and blue, blue eyes. He wore long jeans and a brown 'Hollister' T-shirt.

"COLLIN!!" I yelled dramatically. "I am not Erik's girlfriend!" I said.

Collin walked over to me. I sat down beside him as Erik regained himself.

"So if you're not Erik's boyfriend than you won't mind me doing this." He said tilting my head up and started making out with me. Everyone whooped and we both smirked. He went further and started to French and I allowed him to.

"HEY!" Erik yelled pulling Collin off me. "What the hell are you doing!?" He asked.

"What? She's not your girlfriend so I can do whatever I want with her." He said smirking at me.

"Like hell you are." Erik said sitting down.

"Aww what jealous?" Collin teased.

"You really are a son of a bitch you know that!?" He said to Collin angrily.

"Aww c'mon Erik he was just screwing around." I said giggling.

"Yea well." Erik said then sighed. "I know." He said then smiled at me.

"And you did diserve that! You've been drinking!" I said putting my hands on my hips.

"Damn man you know I was just screwing with you." Collin said.

"Wait, do you know where Jake is?" I asked interrupting.

"Yeah why??" Collin asked.

"Just wondering." I said.

"Oh he's at the field; he's apparently trying out for the football team. I've heard that he's gonna be the new quarterback." Collin said. He usually got really pissed when he heard that someone was going to take over his spot as quarterback but now he seemed really calm about this. I was really shocked and I must have made a face because he cupped my chin as he did when he kissed me and said. "Ya know you really are hott when you're shocked."

His face was really close to my face and I blushed thinking he was going to kiss me. He was hott but I already knew he wasn't my type and I had already gone out with him before.

"And you're even hotter when you're nervous." He said placing his lips on my jaw teasingly.

"Wait." I said stopping him. "I gotta go see Jake I need to talk to him 'bout something." I said trying to compose myself.

"Kay, but we'll continue this later on." He said sitting back smiling to himself.

"Yeah, yeah." I said walking away.

I found Jake at the football field. He was still in the middle of tryouts so I sat in the bleachers where he spotted me soon after. He gave me his awesome smile than threw the football to Coach Dwayne. He was awesome at throwing the ball and the spiral spun faster and faster as it seemed to cut through the air.

"OK Jake, you're done for today." The coach said.

"Thanks." He said turning toward me. I smiled at him.

The coach walked over to him and looked at me with Jake. Coach Dwayne put a hand on Jake's shoulder.

"Stephanie Ayame is your girlfriend?" The Coach said.

I sat up and started walking over to the two.

"Not really we're just good friends." Jake said.

"Hey Jake!" I said standing in front of the two. "Hi Coach Dwayne." I said turning to the tall middle aged man.

"Hello Stephanie." The coach said.

"Hey Steph what's up? Why weren't you here-oh." He said seeing the bandage.

"What happened?" Coach Dwayne asked.

"Oh – I ugh…fell down the stairs-" I tried but then Jake cut me off.

"You what!? Are you alright?" He said tilting my head to look at the bandage.

"Hey," I said calmly pushing his hand away. "I'm fine, I went to the doctors and got stitches its fine now."

The bell rang.

"Let's get to class." Jake said grabbing my hand and showing me to the boy's locker room.

When in the locker room we were talking about how I cut my face. I felt bad about lieing to him like this. I sat on the bench as he was at his locker in front of me taking his clothes out of the locker. He took off his shirt and my eyes were glued to his bare back.

"So… let me see that cut." He said turning around. He had wonderful abs and I turned my head and blushed. For the first time I actually thought Jake was well…Hott. He sat on the bench in front of him and tilted my head up to him like Collin did when he kissed me. He slowly took off the bandage. I cringed but only because he was but a few centimeters away from me. He took the bandage completely off then looked at me. "You didn't actually fall did you." It was more a statement than a question.

He positioned himself so his face was barley a centimeter away. My face flushed.

"Did you?" He said softly. The blush darkened when I felt his warm breath on my lips.

It was hard to breathe but I answered. "No."

"How did this happen?" He asked as he tilted his head and his eyes narrowed into slits.

"A wolf…slashed my face." I said blushing even more.

"HOW!" He exclaimed.

"I went back to the woods after we all left." I began. "And I was walking through the woods when it attacked me. It kept snarling like it wanted to kill me." I said.

"Steph." The sound of his voice was amazing as he spoke my name. "You know you can tell me anything. You don't have to hide anything from me." He said softly. "I'll always protect you." He said. His voice got softer and softer as he spoke.

He came closer. I felt his lips on mine then we jerked away from each other as the Boy's locker room door opened. I put a hand to my tingling lips as I looked at the doorway. Coach Dwayne was standing there.

"Just good friends huh?" He said walking away toward his office. I blushed as a smirk appeared on my face. "Psh yeah right." Then the door to his office closed.

I looked at Jake. His face had a tint of red in it.

Then our eyes met and we started laughing. "Let's get to Geometry before Mr. Anny gives us detention." Jake said after we composed ourselves.

We walked to Mr. Anny's class silently. The rest of the day went by slowly as my mind kept replaying the incident with Jake over and over again.

'_Why did I suddenly feel different around him? Maybe-' _I thought but then my thoughts were cut off by my teacher.

"Miss. Ayame! Miss. Ayame!" I looked up from my desk as Mrs. DeMello was yelling my name.

"Huh? What!?" I said becoming alert.

"Can you please read the rest of page 113 in 'Marked'?" She said. Mrs. DeMello hated fiction stories especially if they had something to do with Vampires. I on the other hand loved Vampires and had a weird obsession with them.

"Yeah sure." I said. I knew what page we were on so I started reading aloud to the class.

"_Hi how are you guys doing?"_

_He spoke directly to me. I mean, directly to me. I could feel my face getting really hot. _

As I read the book I took in every word.

"Monologues seem intimidating, but the key is to get your lines down, and then to imagine that you're actually acting with a full cast of actors. Trick yourself into thinking you're not up here all alone, like this…"

_And he began the monologue from Othello. I don't know much about the play, except that it's one of Shakespeare's tragedies, but Erik's performance was amazing. He was a tall guy, probably six feet, but as he began to speak he seemed to get bigger and older and more powerful. His voice deepened and he took on an accent I couldn't place. His incredible eyes darkened and narrowed into slits, and when he said Desmona's name it was like he was praying. It was obvious he loved her, even before he spoke the concluding lines:_

I paused as I read ahead and blushed.

"Stephanie is something wrong?" Mrs. DeMello asked.

"Oh ugh…no nothing's wrong." I said giving a secret glace at Jake then continued.

She loved me for the dangers I had passed,

And I loved her that she did pity them.

As he said the last two lines his eyes locked with mine and, just like in the hall the day before, it seemed as if there was no one else in the room-no one else in the world. I felt a shiver deep inside of something very much like what I'd felt the two times I'd smelled blood since I'd been Marked, only no blood was spilled in the room.

"That was wonderful Stephanie. So tell me Miss. Ayame, tell me what that means?" She asked me.

"I think that, Zoey is in love with Erik but is too embarrassed to say anything. But what she doesn't know is that he loves her as well and as he spoke those words he was actually talking about her. Talking about the love they had for each other." I said as my face flushed.

"Wonderful and with such passion. Stephanie, how did you come up with this answer?" She asked. I wished she would just move on and stop the constant questioning.

"Well I guess it just reminded me of something that had happened to me before. A person would use any excuse to say tell the other the compassion they have for each other." I answered as I looked around everyone looked clueless. I blushed madly. "For example, say the girl had a cut on her lip and the guy kissed her just saying it was because of her cut." I said.' Eh, close enough.' I thought as my face got redder and redder.

"Hey Steph!" The middle line backer Kyle said. "Based on your beat red face I bet that's happened to you before!" My face got even hotter and everyone giggled and chuckled.

"So Steph," Collin started. "Has that ever happened?" He asked intrigued.

"Umn, ugh." I stumbled over my words. "Well, umn, s-sort of." I said blushing even more.

"So what happened?" Collin asked pissing me off.

I glared at him and he smirked teasingly. He was my ex-boyfriend and he liked to tease me like that when we were going out and he still does.

I glanced at Jake and my eyes caught his.

"Well…"


	5. It only eases pain

Chapter Five:

_Chapter Five:_

"Well… ugh…" I mumbled but was interrupted by a knock on the door. I turned my head as Mrs. DeMello walked toward the door. All I saw was a hand and a folder of papers.

Mrs. DeMello looked at the class and her eyes lingered on mine. I looked around the class, it was silent making it seem eerie.

"Ok." I heard her whisper. Then she turned to the class. "Ugh, Stephanie please come here." Mrs. DeMello beckoned.

I stood up and walked over to my teacher and this stranger.

"Ugh, Stephanie this is Officer Correrio. You should remember him." My teacher said. I instantly remembered everything about him. He was an officer and a member of DSS. Tears formed in my eyes.

"Yeah, I remember him." I chocked.

"Steph let's go for a walk." That's what he said when my father committed suicide and told me that I had to live with my aunt and uncle.

I didn't say anything I just started walking down the hall as he followed not far behind.

There was a few seconds of silence as we sat in the swings in the playground not far from the school.

"Look, Steph, you're old enough for me to come right-"He began then I cut in.

"Look just spit it out then; it's not like I don't already know what you're going to say." I said turning away from him so he couldn't see the tears in my eyes.

"I'm sorry." He said with sorrow in his voice. "I know how much this hurts-"I cut in again turning my head toward him rapidly.

"NO! You don't know how much it hurts, you don't understand…" I said as tears fell from my face. "No one understands what it's like to live this way." I said.

I closed my eyes and hugged myself, and then I felt his arms around me.

"What're you-?" I said.

"Humph, what? You don't even want me to hug you? I remember that when you were little you asked me to marry you." He said as I blushed.

"Humph, that was a while ago, and I was just happy that you were there. But then…" I said as I whipped my eyes and his expression changed. "Then you left, and I hand no one, I mean I had my aunt and uncle but that wasn't much. They only took me in because they had to not because they wanted to. They thought that just because my mother was a medium and did all that voodoo crap that I was a wicked child. They thought that I would bring evil and all that shit into the bloodline and all because I was the daughter of my mother. All because I was born." I said. I felt him shift and his expression changed completely as he let go of me.

"That's not true-"

"Yes it is." I said facing him. "I could see it in their eyes, I felt like they could always see right through me."

"Hey now." He said perking up. "You're not going to get all cute on me are you?" He asked.

I couldn't help but smile. He always said that to me. I felt a different type of warmth rise from within me. "Hmn." I sighed.

"Ahh, see? I always can get you to smile. And yes, I don't doubt it in my mind that you already know what I'm going to say but I have to tell you anyway." He said with sorrow in his voice.

My smile faded. "Okay," I said pretending to brace myself. Whatever he was about to say I was just going to take it in and try to understand.

"Your umn." He was choking up. "Aunt and uncle were, umn, murdered." He said then starred straight at me.

I clenched my hands into fists.

"H-How were they, ugh murdered?" I asked trying not to cry.

"We haven't uncovered that yet but there were marks on their necks that looked like a possible snake bite. We have yet to do an autopsy." He said. My eyes widened. I almost knew for a fact that it wasn't a snake that killed them…it was a vampire.

"Ohh, ugh, who am I going to stay with." I asked wanting to know all the facts.

"We are setting something up for you to go live with Sam and her parents." He said casually a bit surprised how well I was taking this. "Should we go in or do you want to stay with me for the rest of the day?" He asked as we both stood up. We were starring at each other. Without thinking I slammed my face into his chest and cried. I couldn't hold it back anymore even though I tried really hard to hide it.

His arms wrapped around me gingerly. Then more tightly as I melted into him. I did in a way love him, but not like the love you share when you find someone not related to you.

After he brought me back to my house and I just walked to the park and sat on the swing. I didn't want to go home just yet. I mean even if I went home, there was no one there waiting for me. I waited in the park for an hour or so then walked to Sam's house. I was going to tell her what happened but I was afraid of what she might say. I knocked on the door anyway. The door opened and Sam's mom was in the doorway.

"Stephanie! Come in." she said

I walked in and looked around. It was a nice house.

"Sam will be down," Sam's mom said as I turned my head toward her.

"It's alright, ugh may I go upstairs?" I asked.

"Ugh yes." She said as I started walking toward the steps. "Stephanie," She said before I could take one step up the stairs. "I heard about your aunt and uncle. I'm sorry." She said looking somber.

I nodded. "It's alright, thank you." I said then walk up the steps. I came to a door with a big sign that said.

'Sam's room Come in and you're so dead! Well except Steph.' I smirked and opened the door and knocked on the door way.

"Hey." I said as Sam turned her head.

"Steph!" She said twisting her swivel chair toward me. "So what brings thee to the royal bedroom?" She asked then laughed. I smirked. Whenever I came over or vice versa we would always recite this.

"I came to ask thee it I may gaze into those beautiful brown eyes." I said leaning against the doorway.

"Then come." She said and I walked in closing the door behind me.

"So what's up?"She asked as I sat on her bed.

"Nothing really." I said.

"Steph I heard about your aunt and uncle. Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm ok." I said rubbing my arm. The scars were still there.

"Did you cut?" She asked. Sam knew about the cuts and supported me the whole way.

"No." I said as she took my arm and moved my uniform sleeve up. There were a lot of scars and some were still rare.

"Does it hurt?" She asked.

"It does at first but after a while you don't feel that much." I said truthfully.

"When are you going back home?" She asked.

"I should get back." I said looking at her clock. _'8:21pm' _"I should probably start heading home now." I said standing up. "Sorry."

She shook her head. "No its ok you get home." She said and smiled.

When I got home I took a shower. Then I put a bandage on the old wounds and went to bed. I wore a tank-top that went up to my belly button and shorts. I fell asleep at about ten.

I fell asleep and the next time I woke up it was around 2am. I sat up and saw someone in the corner of the room. I walked over to the darkness and knelt down to see this persons' face. It was officer Correrio.

"Drew?" I asked as he awoke.

"Steph." He said surprised.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"I came to check up on you." He said standing up. He helped me up.

"You didn't have to do that." I said walking over to my bed and sitting down.

"Yes I did." He said sitting next to me. He faced me and I turned toward him. "Steph you may not see it or believe me but I care about you, a lot." He said. "I wouldn't be able to live if you died and I knew that I could protect you but didn't." He said.

"That doesn't make a difference, it won't bring anyone back." I said putting a hand on the bandage.

His eyes traveled to the bandage. "Jesus Steph what the hell did you do?" He asked. I put my arm to my chest and walked over to my window seat.

He followed. "It's nothing." I said.

"It's not nothing Steph." He said standing behind me. "Let me see them." He said softly.

I turned and he was but centimeters away from me. And his lips were even closer. He took off the bandage and looked at it for a while. He covered it back up and just stared at me. "Did your guardians know about this?" He asked.

I shook my head and pulled my arm to my chest as tears formed in my eyes. "I can't anymore. I've reached my breaking point." I said as tears ran down my face. He pulled me onto his chest and held me.


	6. Just compassion

Chapter six:

_Chapter six:_

"Hey,hey,hey!" Officer Correrio said hugging me. "It's alright, shhhh"He whispered in my ear as I cried onto his chest. When I was done I sat on the bed and just stared at the floor.

"So I've made up my mind" He said beside me.

I turned my head toward him, "What??" I asked confused.

"I've decided that I'm gonna be your personal body guard." He said looking down.

"WHAT!!" I yelped. "You cannot be serious!" I said paniking.

"Yes I am serious!" He stated firmly. "I cannot let you be in danger and I'm not there to help you." He said and looked at me.

I sighed and laid back on my bed.

"do you really hate the idea??" he asked curiously.

"well it's not exactly what I wanted but … I mean if you want then sure but, there are times that I need privacy." I said truthfully.

"Ok." He responded.

I stood up and crawled up on my bed. ''I'm going to bed." I said then laid down and after a few minutes fell asleep.

When I woke up he was asleep in the chair beside my bed and my alarm clock hadn't gone off yet. I got up, turned my alarm off and tiptoed past him. I got ready for school and walked back into my room. He still slept peacfully so I took off the comfetor from my bed and put it around him. I walked to Sams house and we walked to school together.

As we walked she kept silent the whole time. When we walked up to the school gate I felt like I had to find Jake and I stopped abruptly.

Sam looked back at me. "You oka?" She asked.

"Ugh, yea I have to do something really quickly." I said as I ran pased her and into the school. I ran to the football field. For some reason I knew he would be there. I was right. He was playing catch with Collin and Erik. I walked up to them.

"Hey babe." Erik said.

"Hey Steph" Jake said. I looked at him and blushed. He was handsome and it reminded me of Gabriel.

"Hey babe." Collin said hugging me from behind. I turned around and just looked at him.

"Hi Collin." I said sarcastically rolling my eyes and smirking.

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm ugh…." I said and my smirk faded.

"I heard about your aunt and uncle. It was all over the news, are you oka?" He asked concerned.

"I-I'm fine really." I said lying.

"If you need anything tell me." He said then kissed me softly. I blushed then dissconnected from him almost automatically.

He smirked. "You really are hott when you're nervous." He said pissing me off a bit.

I turned to Jake and walked up to him as Collin let me go.

"Hey Jake." I said blushing.

He came down to me and I blushed thinking he was going to kiss me. He came down so his lips were right next to my ear and his hand was on my shoulder. "Are you going out with Collin?" He asked. I blushed madly.

"No, why?" I asked.

"Well the way he acts around you it seems like you two are going out. I mean you even kissed." He said.

"Well, he just does that cuz he know's it gets me mad." I said

"Oka." He said.

He went back up but without thinking I grabbed his shoulder with my right hand with the other grabbed his wrist stopping him. I gasped a little as I noticed his face was just centimeters away from mine.

I let go and backed away from him blushing. I grabbed my arm behind my back and looked down.

"S-sorry about that." I said

"Hmn someone has a crush." Collin teased walking up to me.

I looked up at him still blushing. "N-Not I don't!" I yelled facing him.

"Alright, if you are in fact NOT crushing on Jake then make out with me." He said grabbing my waist with one hand.

"Are you freaking kidding me!? I am NOT going to make out with you!" I said.

"Fine then you do have a crush on Jake." He said as his eyes narrowed into slits teasingly. I felt a wave of intense heat form on my face.

"Not I don't! Just because I said I wasn't going to make out with you doesn't mean I like Jake." I said stuttering a little.

"Fine, then prove it." Erik said getting excited.

I felt like I was going to pass out. "By doing what?" I asked.

"Jake." Collin said not moving his eyes from mine.

"Yea what's up?" Jake said. My eyes lingered on Collins' and couldn't break away from them.

"C'mere for a sec." He said.

Jake walked up to us. "Ugh, where are you going with this?" Jake asked.

"Steph," Collin said ignoring Jakes question. Collin pushed me up against Jakes chest.

"Umn…" I said nervously.

Jake looked at Collin grabbing my shoulders.

Collin smirked. Then I gasped as the words came out of Collins mouth. "Kiss her." He said to Jake.

"Ugh, but." He protested but was cut off as Collin smirked. Jake looked down at me. I was looking down hoping he couldn't see my beat red face.

Then I felt Jake's hand on my cheek lifting my head up to him. I blinked as my face got even hotter. He came down to kiss me and I crindged snapping my eyes shut freaking out. But just before his lips touched mine the bell rang and he let go of me.

"Oh shit, we should get to class." Erik said. We were all in the same classes and if Erik was late yet again he was going to get suspended and wouldn't be able to play football for the rest of the year.

Collin swore then looked at me and Jake. "We'll continue this later." He said. Jake walked passed me and they all started to walk to class. I stood there feeling my heart beat trying to calm it down. I put my hand on my heart and sighed. That's when I felt Collins hands on my arms.

"Is it still me that makes you sweat? When the lights are dim and your heart is racing as your  
Fingers touch your skin." He said. I remembered those lyrics from his favorite song Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking off her clothes by Panic at the Disco.

I blushed as I felt his hands graze my chest then wrap around my waist. "You know it will always just be me." He said then I jerked away.

I looked down, "We should…umn… get to class." I said running back.

I could feel my heart beat getting faster and harder as I sat in front of Jake. Collin was on my right near the wall of the class and Sam was on my left. We all were in the very back of the classroom. We had ELA and we all had the book 'Marked' open on our desks.

"Pst." Sam said beside me. I looked over at her.

"What!?" I mouthed.

She tossed me a note. I looked at her.

"Read it." She mouthed. I opened the note inside the book and read it.

Steph,

Wat happened back at the field?? I saw you walking over there then when you ran out your face was beat red like you almost kissed the EXTREAMLY HOTT Jake.

Sam 

I wrote back saying it was nothing. She had the biggest crush on Jake and was jelous that I was with him almost 24/7. Then once I passed the note to Sam the bell rang. We both had to get to math so she and I walked to class together.

"So what happened?" She asked.

"Nothing, I already told you" I said a little nervous. I still hadn't gotten over what happened and didn't know if I should tell Sam.

"Please, I have been friends with you for a really long time now so I kno when you're lying to me." She said smiling at me. "It's fine I don't care that you lied to me but….just tell me what's going on." She said.

"It's like I told you it's no-…" I stopped walking and was cut off as I felt hands around my waist. I turned around to see Jake hugging me. "J-Jake!!" I exclaimed blushing madly. Sam watched entertained….well staring at Jake. He was beginning to turn into the most popular, hott, smart guy in Coventry High. Every girl had a huge crush on him, well girls in all of my classes.

"Hey." He said smiling. I Blushed and turned my head towards Sam. She let a small smirk form on her face.

"So ugh…sorry but…can we talk later? I was in the middle of talking with Sam about something important." I asked.

"Yea sure…" He said then gave me a kiss on the cheek. I put a hand to my cheek a little shocked.

"Yea nothing happened for sure." Sam said sarcastically.

"Seriously! It was probably nothing." I said still blushing.

"Ohmigod I'm still so jelous!" She said.

"He's nothing special." I lied and the blush went away.

"Like hell he's not! He's hott!!" She exclaimed.

I said nothing.

"Oh c'mon you know it's so true." She said.

"I really don't think he's that hott." I said lying.

"yes you do, I saw that blush when he kissed you on the cheek." She said as her eyes narrowed into slits.

"I-that…" I said blushing again.

"AHAHA!!" She laughed. "You like him." She said.

"No I-…" I said but then was cut off by Sam.

"Denial the first stage of love." She said smirking.

I sighed. "Whatever let's just get to class." I said running to class. We were ten minutes early and we could talk amungst oureslves.

I was writing a story when someone started reading it out loud, Collin.

I covered it up and blushed as I glared at him. He sat behind me and I already knew this class was going to be hell.  
"Collin you're a jerk!" I yelled putting my notebook in the desk and turning around to face him. I was on my knees on the chair. I was hoping I wouldn't fall.

"Hmn, someone's pissed." He said joking.

"You know I really can't stand you I-." I said but was cut off as his lips met mine. I Gasped and he started to french. I Blushed madly and it got even worse as I realized everyone was watching even Jake. I snapped my eyes shut as an intense wave of heat boiled in my face. He broke away and I opened my eyes blushing even more at his smirk.

"You're annoying when you ramble on." He said. I sat back down in my seat as tears formed in my eyes. I knew that Jake was watching and I knew almost for a fact that he thought we were going out.

"Are you oka?" Jake asked.

"I'm fine…" I said choking up.

"You aren't oka I can tell, and you even have tears in your eyes." He said. My eyes widened in shock. It felt like he read me like a book and I blushed.

I looked up at him. "Look we aren't going out." I said blushing and putting my hands over my mouth rapidly. I couldn't believe that I actually said that.

He smirked. "It's oka I know, you wouldn't be this upset if you were going out with him." His words soothed me a little and I put my hands down on my lap but a tear slid from my eye and he wipped it away keeping his hand on my cheek.

I blushed even more than what I already was.

"Are we gonna continue this now? Here?" Collin said smirking.

I broke away from Jake and faced Collin. "I already told you that I d-" I was cut off by Collin's finger on my lips.

"I know, you don't like him, even though I really do not believe that I'll let it slide but only this one, cause remember I can always get my way with you." He said brushing my cheek with his thumb as he held my cheek.

I blushed and a ppissed look formed on my face. He came closer and I thought he was gonna kiss me again but he didn't. His lips were right near my ear.

"And you and Jake can have your moment at lunch." He said then licked my neck. I shuddered and felt him smirk. I jerked away from him and at that moment the teacher walked in. I whipped the area where he licked and put my head down on the desk.

"Miss. Ayame." Mr. Anny said standing next to my desk.

I looked up.

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked.

"Y-Yea I'm fine." I said then he put his hand on my forehead.

He took it off after a few seconds. "You have a small feaver." He said but I knew I wasn't sick it was just the blush that added the extra heat.

"I'll take her to the nurse." Jake said beside me. I looked at him as if sayig 'what are you crazy!?'

"Alright, but stay with her until she gets back or if she goes home." He said nd Jake stood up. I looked at Sam but she just shrugged. I stood up and walked out of the classroom with Jake.


	7. Fly away

Chapter seven:

_Chapter seven:_

As soon as we were far enough so no one couls hear us I spoke. "Why did you volenteer to take me to the nurse?" I asked a little embarrassed.

"I figured that you could use some time alone from Collin and Erik." He said with concern in his voice.

I did need time alone from them but I wasn't totally alone Jake was with me.

"I know you're probably thinking that you aren't really alone right?" He said.

I looked at him shocked as we walked.

"ugh…wiled guess." He said. I looked away from him.

"Still what happens when we get to the nurses office and she realizes I didn't have a fever?" I asked afraid to look at him.

"She won't be there." He said.

I looked at him. "What do you mean?" I asked then looked back away from him.

"She's on her break. So we can just be alone." He said. I blushed at the way he said that. I got what he meant but I thought differently.

Once we got to her office the secratery told me to sit on one of the divided cots. I sat on the one farhtest away and Jake followed. I sat down on the cot facing Jake but my eyes strayed away from him afraid of getting caught in them.

I was staring at the wall and thinking about luch how I would have to kiss Jake. Then I felt his hand on mine. I looked at him almost automatically and blushed.

As expected my eyes caught his and I couldn't pull away.

"About what happened earlier." He said and I sa a tint of red in his face.

"W-what about it?" I asked.

"I know that we have to 'continue' it at lunch and…" He said but stopped. His face got a bit redder. "Look I'm not anything like Collin." He said.

"I know you aren't, you two are a lot different. You're sweet and caring where as he's just a plain jerk." I said feeling more confident.

"Then why did you go out with him?" He asked. I looked at him shocked I didn't know he knew about that. That happened long before he even transphered into Coventry high.

"H-How did you…" I asked stuttering a little.

"I asked Erik and he said that you two got together then you broke up with him because he was overpowering." He said.

All I could do was nod.

"I thought that he was the one who could help me…take me away from my troubles and would always be there whenever I needed him. But…" I said but stopped as I felt tears form in my eyes.

"He wasn't what you thought he was." He finished.

I noded and tears fell from my eyes.

"Hey." He said tilting my head up. "don't cry," He said whipping the tears away.

There was a long silence then he got up.

"Where are you going?" I asked

He looked over his shoulder "are you coming?" He asked.

I got up and walked up to him. We were facing each other. I looked down and blushed. "Jake." I said softly.

"Hmn?" He hummed. I threw myself onto him hugging him. I blushed as I laid my head on his chest. He was stone cold but I ignored the tingling I got from his touch. Then I felt his hands wrap around my body. I looked up at him and he smirked.

"W-we should get back." I said and we broke away. Even after I still felt the tingling from his cold body as we walked back.

The rest of the day went oka but then lunch came. Collin told me,Erik,and Jake to meet at the field again. It was two minutes until the lunch bell rang and I had to face Jake. 5…4…3…2…RING RING!! The bell rang and we all walked to the field together.

I was in front of Jake and Collin and Erik were off to the side a little.

"Well…" Collin said annoyingly.

Jake stepped into me and I blushed as I felt his left arm aroung my waist and his right on my cheek.

"L-look we don't…" I said blushing madly. I don't think I could blush anymore.

"Just shut up and get on with it." Erik said annoyed.

Jake's eyes never left mine. Then he lent down and I snapped my eyes shut as his lips met mine.

He deepened the kiss by sucking on my bottom lip begging for an entrance. I was hesitant but let him french.

When he released me I bit my lip. His kiss was amazing and my lips tingled from his cold touch.

"Hmn…" Collin said behind me. I hugged myself as a wave of heat formed in my face. I felt my stomach turn playfully. "I still think you are crushing on him." He said.

"W-whatever." I said feeling dizzy. Ever since jake stepped into me I've felt the same. About to faint.

I sat down on the bottom bleacher.

"Wanna go get lunch I'm really hungry now." Erik said and walked away.

"Yea" Jake said and walked away but not before taking a short glance at me.

Once they were far enough away Collin sat down beside me.

"Hey." He said putting his hand on mine which were on my lap.

"Leave me alone." I said trying to compose myself.

"Why are you so upset?" He asked.

"I'm not…that's the problem." I said confusing him a bit.

"Oh" He said realizing what I meant. "So you do like him." He asked.

"I don't but………I don't know." I said "Why am I even talking to you about this?" I said standing up. Collin stood up as well.

"Because, you know I still care about you." He said.

"no, I don't." I said walking away.

After lunch I had gym and I had my suim suit on. It was a red tank top with an white stripe across it diagnolly. And red short shorts. I was paired up with Sam and she had to take my swim time.

I stood on the board and saw Jake watching us. The girls always went first and my number was one so I went first and Sam went after like all the other timers.

"Ready!" Ms. Mia our gym teacher said. Then there was a huge bang and I jumped into the water. I swam through the water three times. Then just floated in the water by the starting line. Ms. Mia was recording our times in her book. Then it came to mine. .34sec. An all time record. I was the fastest in my class but I never really liked swimming.

Ms. Mia looked at me as did everyone else. "Nice job Steph!" She said congratulating me.

I swam up to the lader and before me was Jake. He smiled and I blushed.

"Nice!" He whispered. I got out and walked over to Sam but not before grabbing a towel.

I wrapped it around me and grabbed the stopwatch from Sam's hand.

Then right before Ms. Mia said go there was a rustling in the bush behind me. I shuved it off But then something or someone jumped out of the bush.

"STEPH!!" Officer Correrio yelled jumping from the bush.

I screamed as he tackled me into the water. I landed in the water and water flooded my mouth. I had my eyes open and saw Al swim to the surface. But everything went black I was drowning.

"Steph!" I heard someone yelling my name. Who's? Al's? No…Sam? No… then I realized who it was. Jake. Light flooded my vision as I sat up and started caughing up water. I looked up and basically laying on top of me was Jake. I blushed and looked down trying not to let him see.

"Are you oka Steph?" He asked.

"y-yea." I said.

"Jake, A+ for cpr" Ms. Mia said.

"WHAT!?" I said.

"Jake revived you, if he hadn't jumpped in and gave you cpr you would have drowned." Ms. Mia explained.

"Steph I'm so sorry!" Al said from beside me. I glared at him.

I ignored that and looked at Jake. "T-thanks." I said blushing him. He kissed hy forehead.

''You're welcome." He said smiling. I blushed even more and everyone surrounding us could see it.

He stood up and lended me a hand to help me up. I didn't grab his hand I just stood up. I wobbled and Jake caught me.

"I'm fine." I said standing up straight.

"Jake." Ms. Mia began. "Can you take Stephanie to the nurses office please?" She asked him.

"Yeah." He responded. I took a few steps and started wobbling again. "You can't walk." He said to me.

"I'm fine I can walk." I said.

He picked me up bridal style and I blushed.

"I'm carrying you." He said.

"No wait! W-whater you-…" I said childishly and blushed.

"Are you done protesting?" He said teasingly.

I sighed then relaxed. He started walking and once we were alone I spoke. "If I think I'm oka enough I want you to let me down." I said and he stopped.

He looked down at me. He came down close to my face and I blushed. ''Embarressed?" He asked teasing me.

"No, I just hate it when people stare at me." I said.

"Hmmn." He sighed. "I'm not letting you down and it's fine you're really light." He said and I blushed even more. I got comfortable and laid my head on his chest and accidently fell asleep in his arms.

I awoke in a cot in the nurses office. I sat up and blinked.

"My princess has awaken." I heard someone say. I looked to my left and Jake was sitting there smiling.

"Please don't call me that." I said holding my head. It was spinning.

"You oka?" He asked.

"Yea I'm alright."I responded.

"The nurse said you should stay here for a little and she asked if I could look after you." Jake said.

"You don't have to look after me I can fend for myself." I said.

"You are really stobborn you know that?" He asked softly.

I didn't say anything.

"Are you oka Steph I-…" Al said walking in. He stopped abruptly in his tracks staring at Jake.

"I'm fine." I said. "Actually I think I can egt out of bed now." I said.

"You so aren't." Jake said.

"What do you mean you're not the boss of me!" I said sliding off the side and Jake put his hads on the bed on either side of me. I looked up and my face was right next to his. I blushed and stuttered.

"Ugh….ugh….umn…" I stuttered and his eyes narrowed. I looked up at Al and he glared at me then at Jake. "You're right I ugh…should lay back down." I said turning around.

"I'll stay here with you Jake you can leave now." Al said to Jake.

"You're right I should get going." Jake said and got up. He walked away and Al sat down.

"You like that Jake kid." Al said.

"WHAT!? No I don't!" I yelled sitting up glaring at him.

"I know when I see someone in love especially women." He said.

"Yea well…" I began getting out of bed. "I'm not like other women, I'm different." I said and walked out. I went to ELA and she was upset when I walked in.

"I'm sorry I was late Mrs. DeMello." I said.

She nodded with tears in her eyes.

"Umn, what's going on?" I asked as I looked around the class. Everyone was a little upset.

"The school is being closed so all students are to be transphered to Shukumei High." She said.

"Oh…where's that?" I asked confused.

"In California." She explained.

I sat back down.

"You will have to be in California by tomorrow. The Sate will be paying for each of you to get there you're passports will arrive in the mail tonight. You're first day will start on Thursday the day after tomorrow." She explained.

I looked at Sam, Collin, Erik, then Jake. Each of them the same look, unsure. I wanted to believe that this really wasn't happening but it was all to real to be a dream.

The rest of the day went on slowly but when I got home I found my pass port and walked next door to Sam's house. We were planned to sit next to each other on the flight so Sam's mother drove us to the airport. Al was not going to be on the flight so he sent me off with an improved cell phone.

I met up with Collin, Jake and Erik at the airport. All of us were going to be seated in the same area. On the plane there was a group seating which is where we were going to sit. I had my camera with me and my laptop with me.

"Who want's window seat?" Collin asked.

"I do." Sam and I said at the same time.  
"Oka the girls sit near the window."

Sam sat across from me with a table in the middle. Collin sat next to me with Erik on the side of him.

I turned my I Pod on and listened to Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking off her clothes by Panic at the disco.

Then I put my I Pod on the table I leant my head against the window waiting for the plane to take off.

"You know, when we get to Cali none of our parents will be there." Collin said lifting his eyebrows and Hi fived Erik. I rolled my eyes as I drounded them out. I ended up falling asleep soon after the plane took off. I awoke to something wet in my mouth. I opened my eyes almost imidetly only to see Collin making out with me. I blushed and pushed him off.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Collin!" I exclaimed.

"We're here and I couldn't wake you up any other way." He said smirking.

"Damned pervert." I muttered to myself and Sam giggled.

"Oh so true!" She said smiling.

I took a glance at Jake he was smirking.

We got off the plane and I streched and Sam tickled me.

"Hey!" I said tickling her back.

"Tired are we?" Jake said.

"No just exhausted…" I said then thought. "Wait where are we supposed to go?" I asked.

"I rented a car so we can either book a hotel or go straight to the school to get our dorms." Jake said.

"Wait we're staying in dorms??" I asked nervously.

"Yea maybe if we hurry we can get a dorm together!" Sam said ecited.

"Yea." I smirked.

"So which is it? Dorms or hotel?" Jake asked.

"I call hotel!" Collin said kissing me out of nowhere.

"Yea me two!" Erik agreed watching Collin make out with me.

"Hey! Get off of me you peverted bastard!" I said pushing him away trying to keep my voice down in case of young children. "I so vote dorms!" I said

"Me to! Me to!" Sam said feeling left out.

"Jake it's up to you." I said looking at him.

"I don't care really, I 'm driving and I think the school is the closest so why not there?" He said. I smirked.

"Damn dude! What the hell!! You screwed up the plan!" Collin said sarcastically.

"Whatever let's just get something to eat I'm hungry." I said.

After we stopped for something to eat we drove to the School. It was about eighteen miles from any stores or any other civilization. It was in the middle of a forest or so it would seem. The school looked like a palace or a castle it was huge!

"Wow" I sighed.

"Damn! That's our school!?" Collin exclaimed amazed.

When we were intreduced to the principle who's name was Mrs. Martin Collin of course has to be such an idiot but she didn't mind. She was really nice. After, we were sent to our dorms which were seperated girls from boys. Each set of dorms on opposite sides of the building. The classes were upstairs and so were the teachers dorms. Sam and I got our dorm together and we unpacked. It was 2:23am in the morning and Sam and I sat and talked.

"So do you still have a thing for Collin?" She asked.

"No why?" I asked looking her straight in the eyes.

"Well he still acts like he's still atracted to you." She said "And so I assumed that you two back together." She said truthfully.

"Oh…" I said looking down at my bed sheets. I looked up and smiled. "I'm going to go check out the school." I said.

"Will they let you?" She asked.

"I dunno, but I believe that since I'm a new student that I should have the privlege of looking about the school getting to know where everything is right?" I stated more than asked.

"Ugh, I guess." She said.

"Well I'm going so don't wait up for me, get some sleep." I said getting up and turning off the light and walking out closing the door behind me.

I walked around upstairs and the level above it. On the third floor it was really dim and hard to see. I got this eerie feeling as I passed a pitch black hallway connecting to the main one. I took a few feet and then stopped abruptly as I felt a chill down my spine as I faced another dark hallway.

I walked in expecting it to be dorms but all I could see was black. I closed my eyes and kept walking. The inner darkness was a bit more warm. I let out a hand and kept walking. I felt blind. I opened my eyes after about twenty minutes had gone by. I thought about turning around and heading back but it was to late for that when I turned around all I saw was darkness no light, nothing. I was trapped and lost.


	8. More than a dream

Chapter eight:

_Chapter eight:_

I tried my hardest not to panic as I walked further into the darkness but I had passed panic back when I first entered the hallway. My heartbeat was racing and my breathing got harder and raspy._' What is going on? Why am I so freaked out?' _I thought to myself as I slowed my steps and sighed.

"Why are you all alone?" I heard a voice from all around me. I turn around thinking I'd see someone there but all I saw was darkness. I felt alone and frightened. Then I felt a hand over my mouth and one across my waist. I knew I was loosing consciousness and after a few seconds of fighting it I gave into the warm darkness.

I woke in dim light. I was lying on my side on what felt like to be a couch. I tried to move my hands to sit up but I noticed they were tied behind my back. I sat up using my legs hurting my chest. It felt like a bullet straight through my heart and I gasped in pain. I was panting by the time I was standing up and even breathing was far too much for me to handle and I fell to my knees. My breathing was heavy and it took every ounce of my strength to breathe. I kept telling myself that it was just a dream but it was far too realistic to be something of my imagination made by my thoughts, a fantasy, a play of illusion. My body felt like it was on fire but all that pain went numb as I heard the footsteps progressing closer toward me.

"Well well, you really are a tough one aren't you?" I remembered that voice the one in the hallway.

"You!" I managed to say through pants. "Who are you!? I remember your voice in the darkness." I said. It killed me just to talk.

He laughed shortly in pity. "You really have no clue do you?" He began. I could feel my body getting pulled up from hands on my shoulders. He walked back into the darkness and I couldn't see his face but I did feel his gaze on me. I was too weak to fight against him, hell I could hardly talk. "I would have some fun but it seems that you've already been marked by that pathetic excuse for a vampire Gabriel." He said as his lips grazed my neck pleading to sink into my flesh.

"What was that _brother_?" It was Gabriel's voice. "Leave her be. Haven't you had enough _'fun' _with her?" He said sarcastically.

"Well apparently not so. You've already left your mark on this fragile girl." This mysterious guy said.

"Well then what to you intend on doing with her?" Gabriel said carefully choosing his words.

"It's quite simple really." He said and I again felt his eyes on me. Then I felt his cool lips on my hot skin then teeth like little daggers pierce my neck. There was an intense stinging then everything went numb with pleasure. The warmth of his lips on my neck was overwhelming. I felt his arm embrace me one around my shoulders and the other around my waist. When the fangs were drawn from my neck I gasped in sudden pain as all feeling made a huge impact on my body. It felt like the whole world came crashing down on me.

"Why did you feel the need to leave your mark on her?" Gabriel was talking I was sure of it completely.

"Well I could let you have her for yourself did you really think I would let you be so selfish?" The mysterious man said.

"L-let me g-go y-you …" I began loosing consciousness once more.

"Hush." He soothed and I blushed as I felt his cool breath on my lips "You'll awaken soon…_my princess_."

'_Those damned words again!' _I thought then I gasped as I felt his lips on mine. His canine teeth were sharp and unreal as he frenched. My vision blurred not that it meant anything because I couldn't see regardless, then my eyes closed peacefully and I was swallowed by darkness all over again.

I woke up screaming and I sat up and cringed holding the screamed that threatened to be let out as I put one hand to my mouth and another to my chest. I was starting to feel the pain from my so called 'dream'. Once I recovered I searched my body but the only thing that hurt was my chest and a soft stinging in my neck. I slowly raised a hand to my neck and felt two small marks that when my fingers caressed them they flared like gas in a fire. I let out a short little screech.

"Steph! What happened!?" She asked sitting up from her bed.

I looked over at her. "Oh, it's nothing, just a nightmare is all." I looked at the clock it was almost 6am. "You should get back to bed I'm going to go to the principle I dunno where the nurses office is so I'll ask her." I said and Sam gave me a grimace look. "I'm fine my chest just hurts a little and I have a little headache." This was true. I got out of bed noticing that I was in my pajamas. I hadn't remembered changing wait I didn't even remember coming back to the dorms. I opened the dorm door and on the knob was Sam and I's uniforms. They were white. The spring and summer uniforms had black frilly outlines on either side of a criss cross ribbon that tied just below the chest and the black frilly things went to the bottom of the dress. It had short sleeves like those from the Victorian era. They had a ribbon on each sleeve where the sleeve met the upper arm. It had knee-high socks with black heels. The Fall and Winter uniform was a bit different. It also was white but no black frilly things on the dress but on the socks there were with a black ribbon that was supposed to look like it held them together. It had no sleeves but long white arm warmers with a black ribbon on each end. It went up to the upper arm close to the body of the dress. This one had a grey outline for the design and for each uniform there was a white color thing that had a grey outline on it. There was an extra packet of ribbons so you could customize the uniform to your liking. It was certainly better than the ones at Coventry high. I grabbed the four uniforms and hung them in the proper closets. I put the winter uniform on and to my surprise it fit perfectly. I took a ribbon out from the extra pack and tied it around my neck. It looked fabulous. I walked out and down to the principal's office.

I knocked on the door. "C'mon in." She said softly.

I walked in and her hazel eyes met mine through her glasses. Her long light brown hair running off her shoulders.

"Oh Stephanie! I was actually about to call your dorm. I need to talk to you."Mrs. Martin said.

"Umn excuse me but what did you need to talk to me about?" I asked as I walked up to her desk.

"Please!" She said giving me a soft smile. "Have a seat; you don't have to be a stranger." She said and giggled to herself. I sat down in one of the two chairs that were placed before me. "I have all of your grades and test scores and they are remarkable! You have the best scores of any of the students here at Shukumei high." She said politely.

"Thank you very much but umn, can I ask you something?" I asked feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Oh yes of course!" She said.

"I need to know where the nurse's office is." I said.

"Oh I guess I didn't tell you." She said and I looked at her confused. "You have your own personal doctor here at Shukumei High. Your doctor's name is…" She said rummaging through her desk grabbing several papers. "Ah! Here it is." She said grabbing a folder. "Here" She said handing it to me. "It has all the information you will ever need including your schedule and your doctors name and where you can find him. Oh! And Stephanie when Samantha wakes up could you tell her to come see me so I can give her, her folder?" She asked.

"Umn yea sure." I said grabbing the folder with my name on it. "I guess I'll see you later Mrs. Martin." I said standing up. "And thank you for this." I said holding the folder up.

"Okay have a nice day!" She said and the sunlight gleamed off her glasses. I walked out and closed the door behind me sighing.

I opened the folder and saw a picture of my doctor. He had long dark hair pulled back into a loose ponytail that seemed almost pointless. He had yellow eyes and a white cloak on. I looked at the name below it. 'Mark Integra' I recited that name in my head. I've heard that last name before but it isn't uncommon to find someone with the same last name in this world we live in. _'Room 312 wasn't that were I was supposedly 'kidnapped?' _I thought to myself self-consciously. I walked to the hallway that I was in last night…or was it just a dream? I didn't know what to believe. I found the hallway that I had went in the previous night and looked at the wall where it curves into the darker hallway. There was a plaque there with room numbers on it. _'309, 310, 311, 312…' _ I walked down the hallways getting an eerie feeling. Was it because I was having a weird dream about being here last night? Probably, but either way I kept walking down the dimly lit hallway. I came to a dead end after what felt like an hour of walking. I turned to my right and saw room 312. I knocked on the door and the door opened increasing the eerie feeling I already had.

"Umn, Dr. Integra? I'm Stephanie Ayame." I said walking in the room.

"Oh, you're here this early?" I heard a voice from behind me and I jumped turning around falling on my back scattering the papers in the folder all over the floor. "Sorry if I frightened you Miss. Ayame." He said turning the light on. I looked up and before me was my doctor Mr. Integra. He was the most gorgeous doctor that I've ever laid eyes on. He only had to be in his twenties.

"N-no it's alright it was my fault for intruding." I said blushing feeling the pain in my chest. "Ah!" I gasped as I clutched the clothing over my heart as if that was going to rid the pain.

"Are you alright?" He asked kneeling down to me. I was panting trying not to seem fragile.

"I-I'm fine." I said taking a deep breath and sitting up. I looked at Dr. Integra and he was really close to me.

"Here," He said standing up and letting a hand toward me. I grabbed it still clutching to my chest. He pulled me up but far too hard and I ended up just stumbling onto his chest. He grabbed my arms.

"Umn, ugh S-sorry!" I said flushing with heat backing away.

He smirked. "You remind me of someone I once knew. She was fragile like you but, she only opened up to me. I felt like I was the one who could protect her." He said.

I turned looking at him. "I should pick these up." I said kneeling down gathering the pages that has scattered across the room. After I had picked up the last paper I sat down on one of the cots he was sitting next to.

"When did you start having the pain in your chest?" He said pulling the chair to it was in front of me.

"Just a few minutes I woke up and I had this horrible pain." I said clutching my chest.

"Well well you really are a tough one aren't you?" He said.

My eyes widened in shock. "It's you!" my voice was sharp "It wasn't a dream was it!?" I demanded.

He laughed "You caught me…_princess Sophronia_." He said.

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm not a princess and my names not Sophronia its Stephanie!" I said.

"Hmn." He sighed. He brought his head down to my neck. "Yes you are correct the dream wasn't really a dream and I did mark you." He said and I shuttered as I felt his cool breath on my neck. I swallowed and blushed.

"W-what are y-…" I said then I felt his teeth on my neck. He held onto my shoulders holding me in place. When he released me just stared at me. I looked dazed into his eyes.

"Why do you fight the darkness?" He asked knowing that I was going to loose consciousness.

I said nothing. "Give yourself to me." He said bringing his lips down to mine. For a second I didn't resist but at the last second I turned my head.

"I-I can't…I won't!" I said and looked him in the eye.

"You're a tough one to break." He said smirking. "Go back to your dorm." He said and his smirk fell. I felt my body get pulled up and thrown out the door. I hit the wall and the folder was right beside me as I fell to the floor.

"Ow." I whined and stood up. I whipped the little droplets of blood off of my neck and ran back to the dorm folder in hand.

I laid the folder on my bed when I returned to the dorm. I tried to be quiet because Sam was still sleeping. I walked over to the window; the sky was filled with dark clouds. As I sat in the window seat I thought about Dr. Integra. He was extremely rude to me and I wasn't about to take that from him. I shoved it off and decided to go back to bed although I hadn't taken anything for my headache and it had just gotten worse from smashing into the wall. I sighed and stood up. I changed into my white tank top that came up to my belly button and my white shorts that said 'dark beauty' on them in black lettering. I crawled into bed and tried to fall asleep but every five minutes I would look at the clock making me even more exhausted than what I already was. My body was starting to ache now and every time I turned over the pain became almost unbearable. I knew I needed some medicine but I didn't really want to talk to that jerk of a doctor and my body was too weak to fight him of even restrain him if needed. I sighed and sat up. I reached into the nightstand draw and grabbed a book. It was empty as I flipped through the pages. My mom had bought this diary for me the day before she was hospitalized. I unlocked it and took out a black pen that was near the lamp on my nightstand. I started writing.

June 12

Dear diary,

This is my first entry since my mom had bought me this diary a few years ago. I am 16 years old and am a sophomore in high school. Well, I was until all the students had to be transferred into 'Shukumei High' in California. I took a plane here with Sam, Collin, Eric, and Jake. Sam is my best friend and I can always count on her although I think she worries about me too much. We have been best friends since pre-K and she was there ever since even when my mom died. Collin was Coventry High's (my last high school) quarterback for football and my 'ex'. I still wonder why he chose to go out with a girl like me but whatever. Eric, he is an odd one. He is the running back for the football team and a total jerk but he has him good moments. Then we come to Jake. I met Jake not that long ago and I almost immediately befriended him. He's been so nice to me but…I think I am starting to think of him of being more than a friend…well that can hold until another day.

The past few years have been hard for me. I lost my mother long ago and then without my mother my father felt alone even though he had a child. He committed suicide and left me alone in the world. Of course I had my aunt and uncle but…they were murdered not that long before I came to California. _I know this is going to sound crazy but…When my mom died this doctor named Gabriel had told me his secret that he was a vampire. I always was obsessed with the vampire legacy but I never even thought of meeting a real one. But now that I am in California I have met another vampire. He is a vampire but he's rude and a little pushy. His name… Mark Integra._

_Enough about vampires but…I keep feeling like I'm being followed and then I feel hands on my shoulders but when I turn around no one is there. And then I keep hearing people calling me princess. Like one day this one guy fell out of a tree and he was cut up really bad and bleeding. He kept calling me 'princess'. How odd…well I gotta go I need some aspirin._

I closed the diary and got out of bed. I tossed the diary on my bed and walked out the door being careful not to wake Sam. As I walked through the school I felt a breeze caress my stomach and I realized that I hadn't changed. I was almost there so I just ignored that and kept walking. When I arrived at his door I hesitated opening the door. I put my hand just above the door when I stopped myself. I heard something like bones cracking from inside the door. I was shaking now as I laid my hand on the door knob. The very moment I put my hand on the door knob something hit the door and I pulled my hand back into me and I backed up a few steps. I held my arm to my chest and when my back touched the door I gasped and crouched down holding my head protectively. I knew something was in there and flashbacks of my fathers' death kept repeating in my mind forcing tears to my eyes. I turned to my right and noticed I was sitting in the corner. I sat there shaking then I felt a cold hand on my shoulder and my eyes widened.


	9. Careless emotions

_Chapter nine:_

I felt the hand on my shoulder turn and in front of me was none other than Jake. I looked at him with tear filled eyes. As I looked at him the image of him started to blur.

"Stephanie! Are you okay?" He said softly.

"Jake!" I said softly choking up and shaking.

"Steph c'mon." He said pulling me close to him. I sobbed onto his chest. He stood up taking me with him. He stepped into me and hugged me I could feel the cold of his body but I didn't mind. When I was done crying I realized that Jake was holding me and I blushed madly.

He laughed probably feeling the heat from my face. "You blush every time I'm close to you." He said smiling. "C'mon you can stay in my dorm tonight." He said and I looked up at him almost immediately.

"But! ... Then you'll get detention or something for holding a girl in your dorm! And what about-…" I said then stopped myself as he looked me straight in the eyes. "Alright…" I said blushing even more.

He directed me to his dorm walking side by side without touching. I blushed thinking about sleeping in the same dorm as him but then I thought about his roommate.

"Wait!" I said stopping and looking at him. He did the same. "Who is your roommate?" I asked a little nervous.

"No one I got a room of my own." He said and the blush deepened.

"O-Oh…" I said looking at the red carpet flooring. I started walking again and Jake followed passing me a little.

When we arrived I sat down on the bed and he sat at the computer desk that was completely empty.

"So…are you excited about our first day of this new school?" I asked.

"I never thought it'd be this bright." He said looking out the huge window that was at the end of the hallway at the rising sun and he shielded his eyes. The sun shone through some of the dark grey clouds that threatened to start raining.

"Yeah, it's not like Coventry is it?" I said looking out the window. You could just barely see the sun peeking over the black clouds.

"No it's not." He said softly. I looked out the window a few steps behind him and felt his gaze on me. I didn't look up not daring to look into his wonderful eyes.

As I looked out the window it started to down pour. The rain came crashing down hard against the window.

I ran back and Jake followed me yelling for me to stop. Even his voice couldn't reach me as my mind fell into darkness. I felt as if no one could reach me. My mind felt asleep as my body moved on its own. I ran to the garden but didn't open the two French doors that stood in front of me.

"What are you doing?" Jake asked confused.

"The rain…" I said softly as I opened the doors. The doors opened and you could see everything so faintly as the rain poured down. I stepped outside and the second I stepped on the cement rain fell onto my head. I felt like I was in a different world and I lifted my head and closed my eyes. The rain softly hit my face running down my neck. My dark hair and clothes were soaked in a matter of seconds. "I love being in the rain." I said to Jake as I felt his gaze on my back.

"Why's that?" He asked.

"I used to walk in the rain all the time when I was with my mom. She loved the rain, we shared that same interest. We would go walking in the rain laughing and getting soaked. She would pick me up and say that I was a little black cloud raining on her. It wasn't an insult. It was our thing; we would say that the other was a black cloud raining on us." I said as tears stung in my eyes.

"So you were really close to your mom." It was more of a statement than a question. I heard understanding in his soft voice.

"Yea" I thought about all the times she held me and said 'I love you'. Those were foreign words to me. I haven't heard them in forever and tears fell from my face. I cried silently just standing there soaked. All of a sudden I turned around and blushed as I opened my eyes to see Jake standing in front of me. Tears were still flowing as I held myself. I was going to walk back with Jake but I got dizzy and fell. My body felt like it was on fire and it hurt badly. But I soon realized that I was not on the ground.

"Why didn't you help her?" I remembered that voice; Dr. Integra.

"Well, I-I ugh…" Jake stuttered.

"Stuttering like an idiot isn't going to help her." Dr. Integra said. I realized that he had caught me from falling forward. I was hanging over his left arm. He moved and knelt down; I was lying in his arms. I knew where I was but I couldn't open my eyes or move my body. I was completely helpless.

"It hurts!!" I started yelling over and over again. It hurt really badly and I was on the brink of crying. My body felt like I was laying on the suns' surface.

"Then what _can_ I do to help her?" Jake asked Dr. Integra with tension in his voice.

Dr. Integra didn't answer and after a few seconds I felt ice cold lips on mine stopping my screaming. I almost immediately felt calm and my body got cooler making it bearable. I felt an arm tighten its grip around my waist then I felt a hand on my head. I knew that it was Dr. Integra who was kissing me and it made me feel a bit awkward.

"What are you doing?" Jake asked making Dr. Integra disconnect from me. I felt his grip loosen as he broke away.

"Foolish boy. You're part of us and you have no idea what I'm doing to her." Dr. Integra said.

There was a long pause then Dr. Integra stood up picking me up bridal style. My body was still on fire but it wasn't as severe as it was a few minutes ago.

"Let's go to my room." Dr. Integra said to Jake.

We were walking when I woke up. "Dr. Integra." I said opening my eyes. I was shaking.

"Carful, if you cling to me any harder you'll rip my shirt." Dr. Integra said smirking as he looked down at me.

"S-sorry." I said blushing hoping he thought it was just because my body was on fire. I released his shirt and blushed even more.

"Hey, it's alright." He said smiling. I didn't get it, why was he acting so nice to me when he acted like such a jerk a few hours ago.

"Where's Jake?" I asked feeling him there.

"I'm right here Steph, you'll be okay." Jake said beside Dr. Integra.

"You're shaking; we need to get you to my room quickly. But right now you need to rest." He said kissing my forehead. I blushed madly making the heat even more intense. I laid my head on Dr. Integra's chest and dozed off.

We walked to Dr. Integra's room and I was somewhat awake. I was conscious but it was like I didn't want to wake up. He laid me on his bed and put his hand on my forehead.

"She's still boiling." Dr. Integra said taking his hand off my forehead.

I heard him open a drawer and take out something. There was silence after that then I heard Jake talk.

"What are you doing?" He asked then I felt a hand on my neck then a needle being inserted into my neck. "Wait…you're not…" Jake said a bit shocked.

"No." I heard Dr. Integra say then take the needle out. Immediately after he took the needle out; my body got cold.

"How do I know that you're not lying to me?" Jake said sternly.

"Because you have to believe me." Dr. Integra said a bit aggravated.

"And why should I believe you? You've done nothing but be a jerk to Steph." Jake said.

"Because, you're bones are still fragile. I could break them just as easily as snapping a toothpick in half." Dr. Integra said. Jake shut up quick. He knew that Dr. Integra was right and that he was completely helpless at the wrath of a vampire. It was odd; he was fighting Dr. Integra's choices for me, to protect me even when he knew what he was up against.

"Alright" Jake said.

"Hmn?" Dr. Integra sighed like he didn't hear.

"Alright, I'll believe you this time but don't think it's going to last very long." Jake said.

"You do have your wise moments huh?" Dr. Integra said sarcastically.

I felt someone sit next to my cold body. I felt a hand stroking my hair away from my face. I loved that feeling even thought my body was ice cold. It felt as if the one I loved was sitting right there comforting me.

"She's cooled down a lot. Perhaps I shouldn't have given her as much blood as I should have." Dr. Integra said. His voice was close and I knew he was the one stroking my hair.

I felt his gaze on me. "You're a tough one to break." I heard him whisper knowing only I could hear him.

I felt his hand move from my head to my cheek then slowly grazing my jaw down to where he stopped my neck. He caressed my neck with his thumb where he had 'marked' me.

"Don't." I heard Jake say. "I won't let you do it…not to her." Jake said. I didn't understand what he was talking about.

"Hmn" Dr. Integra sighed softly. "So you know about her then. Well, well. I thought your 'Master' didn't tell you. He told me that it was best you didn't know so you wouldn't get so overprotective." Dr. Integra said annoyingly.

"That's a lie!" Jake snapped.

"Well, someone's in a bad mood." Dr. Integra said sarcastically.

"Just leave her alone." Jake said calming down.

"To late superhero, I already marked her. She belongs to me; if anyone is going to protect her it's going to be me." Dr. Integra said and I felt Jake get tense. "Unless…" He said to Jake hesitantly.

"What!?" Jake snapped.

"Unless you…" I didn't hear the rest of what Dr. Integra was saying.

"NO! Absolutely not!" Jake said shocked and a bit angry.

"Well then back off. Go play hero somewhere else." Dr. Integra said to Jake sternly.

Jake got tense but he backed off. I heard him walk into a different room. I was sick of hearing them argue so I put my mind to sleep and I dozed off again.

When I woke up I was still in Dr. Integra's room. I opened my eyes and sat up looking around when something fell off the bed to the floor. I looked down and picked up the piece of paper that had fallen. It was a note from Dr. Integra.

_Stephanie,_

_You should be feeling better and you may get a small headache but that's normal. I left some Asprin if it gets to severe. If you're reading this you probably know that I'm not there. I had some things to get done but I will be back soon. I want you to go back to your dorm and get some rest then come to my room after class tomorrow. And do __NOT__ bring Jake, come alone._

_Dr. Integra_

I threw my legs off the bed so I was sitting on the edge. I put a hand to my neck that felt a bit stiff but other than that it was alright. I stood up and walked into the kitchen. His room was like an apartment with a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. I looked at the time on the black clock. It was 6:13am the next day. It was a long time that I was asleep and I was amazed. Then I remembered that I would have to go to class tomorrow. I walked to my room at 7:00 knowing that kids would be in class or like Sam; in bed. She always was lazy but she's my best friend either way.

I walked to my room and when I opened the door Erik, Collin and Jake were in the room with Sam just talking. I stopped abruptly in the doorway when I saw them.

"What's going on?" I asked a little shocked.

"Where were you last night!?" Sam yelled running up and hugging me.

"What do you mean!?" I asked confused. Then I realized that I had been at Dr. Integra's room that whole night and I tried not to blush.

"When you said that you were going to get something for your headache I went back to sleep but when I woke up at one in the afternoon and you weren't there I was starting to worry. Then time went by and I walked to Collin's dorm and asked them to go search for you and then he went to Jake and we all split up and looked for you but none of us could find you." She said crying. I eyed Jake and he looked at me as if saying 'don't tell anyone.'

"Hey…" I said hugging Sam as she cried into my shoulder. "It's alright; I'm here its okay!" I said to her stroking her back trying to calm her.

"Right" She said whipping her eyes.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm alright." She said braking away from me whipping her eyes.

"So what happened? Where were you?" Collin asked what everyone was asking.

"I was…" I said having to think fast of a stupid lie. "I was just at the principal's office for a long time then I was with the doctor." I said.

"Wait so it took _that _long to do all that!?" Erik said.

"Yeah 'cause I took a walk outside too." I said looking at Jake. "Sorry I worried you guys." I said feeling a little upset that I was lying to all of them and only one of them knew the truth.

"Oh, we thought you got murdered or something." Jake said for the first time since I heard him last night.

"Y-Yeah, umn…" I said blushing a little.

"Yeah, yeah we'll leave." Jake said again already knowing what I was going to say before I had said it.

He dragged everyone else out of the room except Sam. Once the door was closed I walked over to my bed and realized that I had left the folder with all the info about my classes lying on my mattress.

"We have most of our classes together!" Sam said cheerfully.

I looked at her and smiled. "Oh yeah? Cool!" I said happily.

"And Jake, Collin, and Erik have our same ELA and mythology classes; we have the same teacher for them." She began, sitting on her bed. "Jake has all of his classes with you and I have all my classes with Collin. UGH! How could things get any worse!?" She exclaimed sarcastically as she smiled.

I giggled. "Yeah" I said looking at the clock. "So ugh what do we have first tomorrow?" I asked.

"Umn…Math. Then science, geography, French, mythology, ELA then Tai Chi and gymnastics." She said looking at my schedule.

"wow I haven't done gymnastics since I was really young, but do know Tai Chi pretty well. Hmn, I wonder what kind of things we'll learn in mythology." I said wondering if the teacher would talk about vampires and werewolves and stuff like that.

"Yeah, probably like fairies, vampires, werewolves, and bigfoot, stupid things like that. So untrue and unreal!" She said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah," I sighed. "Hey, you hungry?"

"Yes, I haven't eaten I was too worried about you to even be hungry." She said and I laughed.

We got some breakfast and walked around for the day. When it was about five we went back to our dorms.

"You want somethin' to eat?" I asked Sam.

"Yeah,"

"Stay right here I'll go whip something up." I said as I stood up. Sam grabbed my sleeve.

"You're not going to run off on me again are you because if you are I'm not going to-"

"Chill, I'm not going to run off, promise." I said smiling and she let go.

I walked out of the room and sprinted to Dr. Integra's room. I had to talk to him about so many things.

I sighed and braced myself. I raised my hand to knock on the door but the door was pulled away from me.

"I thought you were coming back." Dr. Integra said smirking.

"Umn…I need to talk to you." I said blushing. It was bad enough and I knew he could see it on my face.

"C'mon in." He said opening the door a bit more so I could walk in. I walked in nervously thinking of how I was going to ask those questions. "You hungry?" He asked as he closed the door and walked into the kitchen.

"A bit but I'll be fine…umn…about what happened last night…" I said as heat flooded my face.

"What about it? Don't worry I didn't do anything to you." He said already answering a question.

"Fine, then what did happen?" I asked

"You were upset and your pain overcame you."

"Oh, then..."

"Hey, enough of the questions." He said as he appeared behind me. I gasped as I felt his hand on my shoulder. "Here, have this." He said and handed me a plate with a grilled cheese on it.

"But…" I said turning around but he shut me up with a finger to my lips.

"Just eat it." I blushed madly and I looked down at it as I took the plate from him. "Don't worry, I didn't poison it." He said smirking.

I took a bite out of it and was shocked. It tasted so good, like how my mother used to make it. Tears formed in my eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked grabbing a candle.

"It's nothing." I said whipping my eyes. I put the plate down and just looked at him. "Why am I so different around you?" I asked.

"What's different?"

"I feel so weak and helpless around you. It's like …" I hesitated. I had gotten one part out now why can't I get the other out?

"Like … love?" He asked and I blushed madly. That was exactly what I meant but I was just to afraid to say it. I mean, I knew I didn't love him I just felt this faint feeling for him. I nodded timidly. "Strong words for someone so weak." He said and I was shocked. I looked up at him. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the cuts."

"What!? I really have no idea what you're talking about!" I said blushing and taking a step back as he stepped forward.

"I was in you're room last night."

"What!?"

"I found bandages soaked with dried blood in your dresser. The stuffy room was thick with the smell of blood, mixed with the sweet smell of perfume when I opened the drawer." He said.

"What were you doing?" I said stepping forward annoyed.

"I could smell your blood a mile away."

"I didn't ask you to go in there!" I said raising a hand to strike him. In an instant the candle was set down, just in time for the same hand to catch my wrist. With a simple shift of body weight and a gentle push I was on the bed, both wrists held down tightly. Dr. Integra caught my thighs between his own, keeping them from moving. "What the-! Get off, you perverted doctor!"

"Now, now, Stephanie…there's no need to name-call…" Dr. Integra said, shaking his head hopelessly. "You attacked me, I defended myself. And now I've got you…quite defenseless."

"I'm _not _defenseless." I growled, and Dr. Integra's eyebrows rose. "You think I couldn't hurt you?"

"Oh, I quite expect you can...I _would_ too, if I were in your position." His grip was secure when I tested it. "Jake would laugh at me for losing, if that happened." He said with a sigh. "All I hear from him is 'Stephanie' this and 'Stephanie' that... I am beginning to wonder what all the hype is about..."

"Don't go projecting your disgusting feelings on me." I hissed some; I didn't really view the medic as actually having feelings.

"Maybe I am doing that, a little." The taller one admitted, raising an eyebrow. "But then, I think I've forgotten what 'feelings' are like. It's not like I grew up with friends beside me. I kept them at a distance from the beginning. You know what it's like to have them, so, _you _would be more likely to do something like that." Dr. Integra's careful fingers began to push up the bandage on my wrist.

"Cut it out! What are you…"

"More likely to do something… because of loss…because of guilt…" He touched the raw skin underneath, pressing until his fingertips got wet. I gasped in pain, my breath picking up.

"How did you know…?"

"That you cut? The stains. The bandages. I heal your wounds, so you would have no reason to use them… and besides, there are scars here." Dr. Integra said, tracing the faint remnants with his merciless fingers.

"Stop…it." I growled out, but to Dr. Integra it sounded more like a whimper. I knew that's what it sounded like to him because he smirked "Leave me alone, what would you care?"

"Are you that lonely?" He asked, and I huffed.

"There you go again, projecting your feelings."

"Am I?" Dr. Integra released the wrist he'd been abusing, reaching up to touch my cheek. The blood was wet, and cooled quickly in the damp air. "I am not your enemy, Stephanie… We're comrades. For now, at least…" He said, his tone of voice so soft but sharp that I almost didn't recognize it. Then I glared at him. I _had _heard it before. When he was with me the first time when I thought it was a dream.

"I don't trust you. Everything you say is a lie."

"So you don't believe that I admire you?"

"What, for my sorrow?"

"It's an emotion you have. One so strong and vital that they haven't been able to rid you of it. I have nothing like that."

"But I thought… you and Mrs. Martin…"

"Jean and I have nothing. It's a fantasy, a play… a temporary relief from these sordid walls and daily tasks. You have a feeling so strong that you hurt yourself to feel better."

"It's not like that…"

"Stephanie, can't you trust me even a little? I'm tired of fighting… My head aches from it." The bloody fingers traced my lips. I remember the taste of my own blood as I licked the blood off of his fingers. That metallic taste was something that was just there under it all there was a part of it that felt like darkness and sadness all mixed together. As soon as the tip of my tongue brushed the callused ends of Dr. Integra's fingers, they were replaced with his lips. My eyes widened, but I didn't resist. I was more shocked than anything. The medic tasted fresh, and clean…so foreign to me. The only other people that had kissed me were my mother, Erik and Collin. I couldn't count my mother because it was only a kiss on the cheek. Erik and Collin, however… Angry with myself, I bit down hard on Dr. Integra's lip, and he winced as he pulled back, licking his split lip. He let go of my other wrist and placed both hands beside me.

"Dr. Integra…" I said timidly.

"What happened Stephanie? I thought you were frustrated with me." He said with a wicked smirk upon his face. I blushed as I struggled under his broad body. "Easy, calm down, you'll hurt yourself if you struggle." He said a little more caring. "Is it really necessary to do all this to calm you down?"

"Just…" I said blushing even more.

"Calm down, I'll let you leave." He said releasing my wrists and moved out of the way so I could leave. I stood up and felt my wrists then ran out of the room.

I walked out and to the dorm. I opened the door a crack.

"Hey!" Sam said waving. "So what'd ya make?" She asked.

"Oh, ugh." I said walking in.

"Steph!" She exclaimed shocked.

"What?" I asked gently still dazed from what had happened back there.

"Your arm! It's bleeding!" She said and I looked at my right hand; it was the wrist that Dr. Integra had abused.

"Umn, yeah, ya see, I was chopping up some stuff to make and I kinda cut my hand." I said totally lying to her. I felt bad about it but it was just something that I had to do. She wouldn't believe me if I told her the truth that a vampire that was actually Dr. Integra found out that I cut and he reopened the wounds with his super sharp nails.

"You clean that u I'll go get Dr. Integra." She said and ran out of the room before I could protest.

I walked into the bathroom. My wrist was cut pretty deep. I took out some bandages and a bottle of peroxide. I poured the peroxide over the wounds and I almost cried. It stung so badly and even if I blew on it, it would still sting. I fell to the tiles of the bathroom and lent my back against the sink cabinets.

I heard the door open and Sam call my name. I ignored her. Dr. Integra walked into the bathroom and saw me sitting in a heap of blood. The cut was so deep it cut my vein a little. I was slowly and painfully losing consciousness.

"Steph!" Sam yelled crying.

"Go sit down over there, I'll help her." Dr. Integra said to her. Sam nodded and before she left she took one last glimpse of me. "Go take an Asprin, you'll need it." He said and closed and locked the door. He walked over to me and knelt down in front of me. "Stephanie, you need to stay with me!" He said tilting my head up. "Perhaps I crossed the line a bit to far." He said looking at my wrist. I sat there shaking as tears threatened to flood my face. I could feel Dr. Integra working endlessly on my wrist. I felt him stitching up my arm and yes, it hurt badly. When he was done he looked me in the eyes or whatever was left of my open eyes. "Stephanie, hey, look at me." He said brushing my face lightly with his hand being careful not to press to hard. I didn't look at him. I felt my mind floating in my head. I felt 

like I was flying. I was almost certain that I was going to die. "Damnit Stephanie! You cannot do this to me!" He yelled and took something out of his bag. He stuck it into my left wrist and almost immediately as the thick liquid was pushed into my veins I came back to my old self. I blinked and looked at Dr. Integra who looked at me hopefully.

"I hope you know, you are going to pay for doing this to me." I said and he smirked.

"I'll pay you right now." He said and brought his lips to mine. I turned my head away blushing.

"Sam" I said simply and he knew what I meant. He knew if she found out about what had happened there would be no end to her lecturing.

He stood up and walked over to the door. He opened it a crack and spoke to Sam. "She's doing fine it'll just be a few more minutes before I'm done. How are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm okay, I just hope Stephanie…I don't know what'd I do if she died while with me. I wouldn't know how to tell Al." She said hugging her pillow as she sat on her bed.

"She's going to be fine. I'll need you to bring her to me after class tomorrow okay?" He asked.

"Alright"

He closed the door and again locked it. He knelt down to me.

"Hmph, that's like cheating!" I joked.

"Do you really want to risk her finding out the truth of why you're in this state? I could gladly tell her if you wish. Including the kiss." He said with a smirk and I got frustrated with him but I just gritted my teeth together to keep myself from smacking him. "But I wouldn't ruin your friendship, plus I pretty fond of what we're doing right now." He said pressing his lips to mine before I could yell at him. I blushed madly and he could feel it. He smirked and I blushed even more.

'_Damn him for doing this to me! But…He's just…so…NO NO NO!! forget it! No way could I want to kiss him again! But…Gah! I can't win! Even if I think up a stupid excuse I know I can't beat around the bush when it comes to him. He reads me like a book and he understands my pain. His kiss is just so gentle and passionate, I can't help but want it more and more. It's killing me!' _I thought blushing. He disconnected from me and just looked at me. He tilted his head and raise his eyebrows as if saying 'well?'.

As much as I wanted to say 'I forgive you' I found myself speechless. I couldn't talk at all.

"I better see you at my door after class." He said teasing me. He kissed my forehead and left. I stood up and splashed water to my face trying to make the blush go away before Sam could notice.

"Are you going to be okay?" Sam asked with tears in her eyes.

I turned around and nodded with a smirk.

"Comere" I said holding out my arms. She hugged me so tightly that it almost hurt. "Hey, I can break ya know." I said laughing at myself nervously hoping she wasn't listening to Dr. Integra and I.

"Sorry. I was just so scared." She said as tears fell from her eyes.

"Hey, Don't worry about me, okay? I can take care of myself and plus if anything did happen to me you would know. I trust you with my life Sam, you know that better than anyone else." I told her whipping tears from her face.

'_Yeah, I can trust her with my life but when it comes to vampires and blood and stuff I can't help myself but tell her lies. I hate it!' _I yelled in my head.

"Go to sleep you need it." She said to me.

I nodded. "Ditto." I said smiling.

I just laid in my bed just thinking. I thought about Jake and Dr. Integra, about what had happened in his room when I had called him a 'peverted doctor'.

'"_Now, now, Stephanie…there's no need to name-call…" Dr. Integra said, shaking his head hopelessly. "You attacked me, I defended myself. And now I've got you…quite defenseless."_

"_I'm not defenseless." I growled, and Dr. Integra's eyebrows rose. "You think I couldn't hurt you?"_

"_Oh, I quite expect you can...I would too, if I were in your position." His grip was secure when I tested it. "Jake would laugh at me for losing, if that happened." He said with a sigh. "All I hear from him is 'Stephanie' this and 'Stephanie' that... I am beginning to wonder what all the hype is about..."_

"_Don't go projecting your disgusting feelings on me." I hissed some; I didn't really view the medic as actually having feelings._

"_Maybe I am doing that, a little." The taller one admitted, raising an eyebrow. "But then, I think I've forgotten what 'feelings' are like. It's not like I grew up with friends beside me. I kept them at a distance from the beginning. You know what it's like to have them, so, you would be more likely to do something like that." Dr. Integra's careful fingers began to push up the bandage on my wrist._

"_Cut it out! What are you…"_

"_More likely to do something… because of loss…because of guilt…" He touched the raw skin underneath, pressing until his fingertips got wet. I gasped in pain, my breath picking up._

"_How did you know…?"_

"_That you cut? The stains. The bandages. I heal your wounds, so you would have no reason to use them… and besides, there are scars here." Dr. Integra said, tracing the faint remnants with his merciless fingers._

"_Stop…it." I growled out, but to Dr. Integra it sounded more like a whimper. I knew that's what it sounded like to him because he smirked "Leave me alone, what would you care?"_

"_Are you that lonely?" He asked, and I huffed._

"_There you go again, projecting your feelings."_

"_Am I?" Dr. Integra released the wrist he'd been abusing, reaching up to touch my cheek. The blood was wet, and cooled quickly in the damp air. "I am not your enemy, Stephanie… We're comrades. For now, at least…" He said, his tone of voice so soft but sharp that I almost didn't recognize it. Then I glared at him. I had heard it before. When he was with me the first time when I thought it was a dream. _

"_I don't trust you. Everything you say is a lie."_

"_So you don't believe that I admire you?"_

"_What, for my sorrow?"_

"_It's an emotion you have. One so strong and vital that they haven't been able to rid you of it. I have nothing like that."'_

I felt bad for him a little. He said that he never had that type of emotion before, sorrow. I wondered about why he said he'd admired me. Was it really for my emotions or was it because I was mortal? Was it because he thought that just because he'd lived for centuries that he could no longer love? I thought about what he'd said when I told him that I wasn't defenseless.

'"_I'm not defenseless." I growled, and Dr. Integra's eyebrows rose. "You think I couldn't hurt you?"_

"_Oh, I quite expect you can...I would too, if I were in your position." His grip was secure when I tested it. "Jake would laugh at me for losing, if that happened." He said with a sigh. "All I hear from him is 'Stephanie' this and 'Stephanie' that... I am beginning to wonder what all the hype is about..."_

He said Jake would laugh at him for loosing to me.

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to move around I had to get him off my mind. I stood up and walked out leaving a note on my bed just incase Sam was to wake up, I didn't want her freaking out on me again. She had been through enough today and is probably exhausted.

I walked the halls in my black nightgown that had wings on the back where my shoulderblades were. I sighed.

'_Stupid idiot Dr. Integra... going around thinking he's all that... what if he is all that, though? Why am I pondering over him yet again!'_

Ages later, I was glaring at nothing. I didn't know where I was. I knew I was in the school but I had entered a whole other side to the school that I had never even been in.

I walked around a bit more, and then my ears caught onto the sound of groaning women.

'I didn't know we had an orgy room...' I shook my head, and then remembered where I was – the infirmary, I heard some girls saying they thought the infirmary was haunted. I smirked. Dr. Integra would be here, and I thought about something to say to him. I saw a room as I walked the halls and I crept in, and there I found Dr. Integra. I leant on his head "What are you doing?"

"Dispensing painkillers." His voice was flat. His attitude he had before had disappeared. "Stephanie, let me teach you something. Don't trust anything that bleeds for four days and doesn't die." I knew he meant PMS.

"I never did." I said trying not to laugh. Dr. Integra had to care for the girls and that included dealing with the monthly curse women had to go through.

He sighed. "We're out of painkillers, do you think they'll notice if I give them water retention pills? Or sweeteners?"

"Yes they will. Us women know, because they are the ones that are constantly getting stressed and headaches. They would know the foul taste of painkillers." I said matter-of-factly.

"Maybe I should just go into the broom closet and sleep, I would be doing a favor for myself but to others as well." He said

"I wouldn't suggest the broom closet. There's three lesbians having a 'good time' in there." I gave an involuntary shudder as I heard moaning. "Unless you're straight, it's not the best thing to encounter." I said smirking knowing he would have something to say about that.

"Did you just question my sexuality?" He hissed. "Three, huh? I guess that counts as today's "interesting thing". Damn, I wanted a fire or something." He said sarcastically as he dug into a drawer, and pulled out a spray bottle of water. He took to his feet, and marched smartly to the closet. He opened it, shut his eyes, and threw water at them. He shut the door again. "Two minutes to get your clothes on and get out of there, ladies."

I watched on in abject terror. "... How many times has that happened before?" I had a feeling it was frequent.

"Only about three times a week." He sighed again. "It's hardly a big deal, I'm the doctor. I've seen every girl naked already." He shook his head.

I rose an eyebrow. "If you've seen me naked, you must have molested me in my sleep." I was quite tempted to add 'I've had quite a few realistic dreams' but I wasn't really sure what He would make of that.

"Just a little egotistical, Stephanie?" He shook his head. "I AM a professional, don't get any weird ideas." He rotated his neck a little "I'm not as bad as you think, you know."

"Meaning you aren't a child molester? I know that. You molest people of your own age or older, then." I smirked.

"Get your terms right, Stephanie_. _That doesn't count as molestation." He stretched and met my odd glance. "What? I have a degree in law as well."

I glared at him, my gaze flickering to the closet, from where the women were running out of. I rolled my eyes.

I leaned up against the door hoping no one would open the door and have me jump up.

But it did happen. The door flung open, and I had to jump out of the way to avoid being squished, jumping straight into Dr. Integra's lap. The girl who had opened the door looked horrified, and ran out of the room. I flushed bright red, either with anger or with embarrassment.

Dr. Integra chuckled lowly, and wrapped arms around my waist. "Well, isn't this nice?" ... A loud, hoarse cry echoed through the wall, followed by some curse words. "Nice, but it's a shame about the setting," he mused, tilting his head back to rest against the wall. I knew He was rather surprised at how light I was, but he sure as hell wasn't going to mention it because if he did he'd get smacked.

I froze. "Get. Your. Hands. Off Me!" I snarled, not bothering to struggle. I didn't want to see what evil he might unleash if I decided to squirm. I looked over to Dr. Integra's bared neck, and considered biting it. This time I could be the parasite. While I though it over it became a horrid idea so I avoided it.

Dr. Integra laughed again, and simply released me from his grip. The result being, of course, me tumbling onto the floor.

I made a small 'of' noise as I fell onto my stomach. I sat up, and glared at him with angry eyes. "Bastard." I muttered, standing up and leaning on the wall - away from the door, of course. To prevent any more embarrassing incidents.

He grinned. "You started it, Stephanie." He tried to block out the awful noise echoing from the other room. "Pfft, now I have nothing to laugh at."

"Since when did we have an orgy room, anyway" I frowned. "Or is it just women in pain?" I sighed, and sat cross-legged on the floor. "I need sleep."

"Oh, it might be both for all I know. I give them drugs and tell them to go nap in there." He waved vaguely at the door, clearly meaning the room beyond it. "Never been in there myself. Don't really want to." He ruffled my hair in an annoying fashion. "You were asleep about half an hour ago, weren't you?"

I whacked his hand away, and flattened my hair down. "Yes, but in total I've had three hours worth of sleep thanks to you!" I said glaring at him.

He sighed. "Go to bed." He leant against the wall, and began tapping on the wood beneath his fingers again. He winced as loud, violent swearing shot through the wall. "Damned Erica."

His eyes widened slightly catching mine. "Oh well. Want me to, um," he bit back a laugh, "Walk you back to your room?" He knew that I would probably think something horrid of him if we were in the darkness together. I mean, you never know what could happen in the dark.

I stood up, and turned my back on him, smartly walking out of the room. The door closed, there was a squeal, a thud, and I ran back into the room, slamming the door and holding it closed. I felt quite strained, and terrorized. "I never thought I'd accept help from you."

"You're that scared of the darkness?" He actually laughed this time, but opened the door. The screams only got louder. Dr. Integra stepped neatly over the groaning ball of Erica, and turned a corner. "Follow me..." He said this wearily. "You know, in all the time you've been here you could have made an effort to learn your way around instead of getting yourself in trouble, and I don't mean just by kissing me." He said looking at me and smirking. I could feel his gaze on me and I blushed.

I glared at him, but tried to stick close to him, frowning. "I'm not scared of it. And this place is just a bleak maze - I just have never been to this part of the school." I muttered the last bit, looking at the ground.

He shuddered slightly, more than likely at my clammy fingers, but led the way through the dark halls anyway. "Careful, the floors pretty uneven around here." I shut my eyes, the outer darkness was somewhat distracting. And just to prove _I_ could actually walk across this place blindfolded.

I sighed solemnly, and then managed to catch a glimpse of Dr. Integra's outline in the darkness. I felt my stomach turn somersaults, and I bit my lip to stop myself from moaning. Instead, I put a hand to my stomach, and took deep, calming breaths.

He picked up on the sound of gasps for air. "Stephanie? Are you feeling okay? Is your stitches bothering you?" He asked this quite mildly. I knew that although he asked there wasn't really much he could do. We were about a third into the tunnel that would take us to the correct hall of dorms, and then up the stairs... Anyway, it would be too awkward to attempt any first aid in the dark.

I sighed at the stupid question. "I'm ...fine." I was thinking of Dr. Integra again. Now that I look back I was so glad that he couldn't see my crimson face.

I knew he felt it though even in the compacted, damp air. "You're lying. Are you sure you're not afraid of the dark?" He teased lightly, and quickened his pace a little.

"I'm sure." I gritted out. I knew then that for some reason I was strangely nervous around him.

He sighed. There was just no speaking to some people. He took my hand tighter, subtly testing my fairly erratic pulse. "Okay." He walked faster still.

"Will you stop trying to check what is wrong with me? I'm fine." I hissed annoyed. And then all of a sudden I tripped dragging Dr. Integra down with me.

He gasped a little. "Shit….Umn" He must have felt a frantic heartbeat against his elbow because he spoke. "You're panicking." He said this simply, so I couldn't question it. He moved one hand to feel my face. "And you're hot. What's wrong?" There was no jollity in his voice.

"You're … laying on me." I groaned, and slithered forwards from beneath him. I sat up miserably.

Dr. Integra sighed. "Let's keep going..." He stuck a hand out, at arms length, to take mine.

Blindly, I edged towards him, I put a hand out . I grabbed his hand feeling his cool skin against my warm hand.

Dr. Integra helped me up accidentally pulling me to hard stumbling upon his chest. I blushed and he felt my heart beat speed up as he looked down at me. Then I felt his hand on my forehead feeling the hot sensation. I blushed even more than what I had been already. "It gets lighter this way." He would make things even more awkward, by acting as calmly as possible. And biting back his laughter. "I'll think of something to talk about, somehow..."

I sighed, backing away from him. Somehow, it getting lighter would be a bad thing; I was getting redder by the second, and having Dr. Integra right in front of me wasn't making it much better. "Lead the way." I muttered.

"Enthusiastic as ever..." He turned a corner. "Try not to walk into the wall, turn left sometime soon." He hummed idly. "It's hard to keep talking, you know that?"

"Yes." I managed to dodge the wall as I turned, trying to keep up with him. I could, vaguely, see the black turn to gray.

"Getting lighter now..." He sighed. There was no way I could get lost. From here on it was straight to the stairs, which were dimly lit.

I sighed, trying to think of things that would help calm me down so Dr. Integra wouldn't see me blushing... nothing…I found myself hopeless.

'Am I admitting to myself that I like him?' I felt myself glow crimson, I just tried to blank out everything and failed, horribly.

He sighed. The wonders of conversation. He glanced back, smirking probably happy to be able to see a faint outline of me. I was standing odd and he turned to me. He ran a hand through my hair, which made me blush even more but I tried to hide it by putting my head down. I needed sleep, soon.

I blinked, and then yawned. Between loss of blood and pure exhaustion I was ready to faint. We finally came to the stairs, and I started climbing them, my eyes becoming heavier... heavier... heavier... 'thud'. I tripped over the last step, or rather, it looked like it. I just couldn't be asked to take another step, so I decided to sleep. Cleverly.

I knew he heard a thud because he turned around sighed. He walked over to me and cradled me in his arms bridal style. Well, that ended the awkward silence at least. I was barely awake and my body became numb as he climbed the rest of the staircase. As he came to the dormitory hallway he growled, took his right hand and whipped his forehead. All of my body was boiling and he was probably feeling it as well. He turned the corner, and counted three doors down. Laying me down into bed was easy, and so was removing the big black bow-thing that was wrapped around my neck. After taking off the first layer of clothing leaving me only with a small tank top and white 'Under Armor' shorts I'm guessing he decided I would be very pissed to wake up undressed, which he was correct about that. He pulled the blanket up to my waist and left. I felt hot still, that is until I felt something damp and cold on my forehead that lowered my temperature drastically.

I woke up in the middle of the night and felt that damp something on my forehead. I removed it, and found it to be a wet cloth. I sighed, and looked at the bed stand on the side of the bed. My bow was folded in a pile along with my other clothes.

Dr. Integra re-emerged at the door, thermometer in hand and a pained expression. "Oh, you're awake." He sauntered closer allowing me to see a hand print on the left side of his face. "What the hell happened back there? Exhaustion?"

"Yeah, pretty much. What happened to your face?" I smirked already knowing, but sitting back on the bed lazily wanting him to tell me. I looked at the thermometer, and then remembered blushing and being so close to Dr. Integra. I tried not to think of it, but I felt heat rising into my face slowly but surely.

"Oh." He laughed nervously. "Feminine wrath happened to my face. I told her quite honestly we were out of Tampax, and I suffered dearly." He extended the thermometer. "I'm not gonna even try and aim for your mouth... You still look a bit hot to me." He sat on the edge of the bed, balancing awkwardly.

I sighed, and willed the blush down. "I'm fine. I was fine before and I'm fine now." I leant against the wall, and tucked my hands behind my head. I glanced over at Dr. Integra and my mind wandered to him doing bad things to me which were completely possible. My mind froze when I noticed that my head was bleeding. I tried to stem the flow with my hand, not wanting Dr. Integra to see.

"You were boiling! And then you passed out!" He shook his head. "You're not fine." He shot my bleeding temple an odd look. "Don't make me drag you off for a medical."

"I'm fine!" I hissed. I whipped the rest of the blood with my hand and glared at Dr. Integra. "You're just going to drag me off to a medical anyway. Cause you are scared shitless that Mrs. Martin's gong to hurt you."

He rolled his eyes. "You don't scare me, girl." He pushed me back down idly, palm whacking off my forehead. "I get this shit all day, for doing my job. I am actually paid to worry about you, you know that?" He sighed. "You get either my supervision or you move into Collin's chamber. And I'm sure you'd love that." Light flashed off his eyes, making 

him look a bit more sinister. He whipped his mouth with one hand whipping blood off his mouth, the other hand still holding me down.

I growled, my eyes narrowing to slits. I really did have no choice - moving in with Collin was probably the worst death sentence ever! Death by molestation and or sex. I gritted my teeth, and looked away from him frowning.

He sighed, and took his hand back. He stared quite solemnly at the far wall, but the flare of artificial light glinting off the yellow eyes made it impossible to tell. "And you have nothing to say to me…again."

I sat up, and brushed my hair out of my face. I pulled my knees to my chest, and glared at them, soft tufts of hair falling into my eyes.

Dr. Integra crossed his arms. "Are you going to talk, or sulk? If you don't answer I'm going to leave." He sighed. "I dislike you when you're like this. Bear in mind, Stephanie, you're only sixteen. You're nothing special. Just another megalomaniac." He turned away. "Power corrupts, you should bear that in mind. I know you want revenge on the people who killed you're family but what will that accomplish?"

"I know that power corrupts. If power didn't corrupt people, I wouldn't even be here. I'd be with my parents in the kind town where I grew up... I'd be dead already" I curled my nails into fists, and I shut my eyes tightly.

"So you plan to continue the cycle? What do you plan to do?" He shook his head. "Everyone just assumes you can fight fire with fire. No, then everyone suffers." He hung his legs over the edge of the bed, hunched slightly. "I thought you might understand that, you being a "genius" and all." He smirked teasing me probably trying to cheer me up but it didn't work.

"Even genius' screw up sometimes." I muttered, glancing over at Dr. Integra. "Haven't you ever screwed up in your life?"

"Careful people don't make mistakes that matter." He ignored my question totally. "So what exactly was your big error? Coming here?"

"No, it was for living, for not being able to protect the ones I loved the most, for not being able to protect Sam." I rose my head. "I'm not as strong as people think I am. I can't protect anyone I love. Why am I still here?" I stood up, almost robotically, and grabbed my clothes. I put them on and glanced at Dr. Integra. He probably thought I was going to do something horrible. I ran out of the room and out the door of the infirmary. It was still dark out but I needed to leave. As I ran I could hear footsteps behind me.

"And what exactly is this accomplishing!" He yelled, closing in a bit more.

I ignored him, and increased my speed. I stumbled, tripped, and yelped. I stood up and started running again. I had lost my distance and could now see him behind me.

He spoke loud enough for me to hear his slight snigger. He was getting a tad pissed off. "You're nothing new, you know that? You're just turning into a rather crappy clone of your father."

I growled at these words; but I couldn't stop running. My father was a pathetic man. I hated my blood; I had his blood in me. How could it have taken so long for me to realize that sound wasn't where I belonged? I had no other choice but to run.

Dr. Integra pounced but missed my body. He ran like hell over to the tree in the court yard. He chuckled, and tugged on what he hoped was my uninjured wrist as he tackled me to the ground . I fell, face-first on the ground twisting my ankle. Despite the churning feelings of glee I bet he had, was still a doctor. But he again cradled me in his arms. "Done rebelling for today then?"

I punched him in the stomach, unfortunately with my bad hand.

"Not just yet!" I said as he knelt down, I jumped away and ran like hell, the adrenaline pulsing away the pain.

Dr. Integra charged, this time frustrated. There was no way a limping teenager could run well especially one like me. He caught up with me easily, and tackled me to the ground yet again.

With sharp nails he dug a huge gash in my back. "I'm serious." He dragged me back a few feet, pulling the bad wrist. "Now grow up."

I yelled, curling up defensively. I was shaking and panting, and my eyes were heavy from blood loss. Finally, I went limp, blood trickling down my arm. He had reopened the cut and it was bleeding badly.

He sighed, and picked me up by the middle, putting my limp arms on my legs. "Better." He sighed probably feeling bad that he had injured the only mortal that knew his secret that he hadn't killed yet. He walked back through the gates, considering whistling to wake and annoy me further. He carried me back into the dorms, lay me down, and fixed the gash and my ankle easily but it took a while for him to fix my wrist. He looked at my, face contorted with pain my eyes still open slightly. He sighed, smoothing the sheets up to my shoulders. He wiped blood from my face lightly. He sighed, and handcuffed me to the bed, got up and walked away. I was still awake but barely, I didn't have enough energy to get up or even try to resist.

I woke up, expecting to feel pain, yet I didn't. I saw gray walls, and as I tried to sit up, I found that I couldn't. I lay back down, at then at the bed stand. I swore loudly. "DR. INTEGRA!, I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Dr. Integra re-emerged, smirking. He sat on the side of the bed. "No, you aren't. We've been through this before." He sighed, looking at my angered face. "I didn't want you trying that again is all. At least I healed you, I was quite tempted to leave you bleeding in a heap." He unfastened the cuffs one-handed, and shook his head. "Try anything again and I'm calling up Collin, you hear?"

"Pfft. Collin doesn't scare me." I massaged my wrists, and glared at Dr. Integra. I've heard of the techniques Dr. Integra was capable of from Sam; being able slicing through muscle without harming the skin. To be quite honest, I didn't want that happening to me.

"Aww, sore wrists? Next time I'll use the fluffy ones, is that better?" Dr. Integra laughed slightly more than likely at my horrified face. He cracked his knuckles daintily, sighing. "Are you in any pain still? I was kinda lazy with your ankle."

"I wish I was." I muttered. "Next time, let me be. Or I'll tell everyone your secret." I snarled.

"Now, where's the fun in that?" He gripped me by the chin roughly, and lowered his voice. "Don't you threaten me. I could paralyze you and make it look like an accident."

"I don't care. Being paralyzed would just be so much better. Go run to 'Mrs. Martin'." I hissed threateningly.

He hissed. "I don't know how you would get that across and I don't care, but I hear anything and you're going down with Collin. You still don't scare me. You're too fucking cute." His grip on my chin left to cup around my throat.

I lifted up my own hand to wrap around Dr. Integra's neck knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything. "Would I be even cuter if I decided to rip out your windpipe?"

He laughed, tightening his grip. Quite effectively choking me. "Possibly." He leant back idly, and tapped at the wrist straining towards his throat. "You'd be even cuter if you behaved."

I made a small, strangled choking yell noise, and my hand went limp. The other hand went to the hand throttling me, tugging back.

Dr. Integra repeated the action on my other side, and removed his own hand. "Y'see, this is not the way to get me to like you."

I sighed again, breathing heavily with a beat red face. "Would it count as bad behavior to do this?" I said pressing my body to his hugging him close. My hands were on his chest and I felt his hands wrap around my lower back making me blush even more.

I let go and he smirked, "Hmn, no." he said as his eyes narrowed. Then he got up and took something out of the bedside table drawer. He put some ointment on my wrists and turned them over. "You'd better take care of these, oh and you don't need to do that again, because…" He leaned down so his lips were nearly on my ear. "I already like you." He said softly turning around and leaving me with a crimson face.


	10. Playing and practice

_Chapter ten:_

I had walked to my dorm after 1 hour of just sitting there in bed blushing madly.

'_Man, why is he so … so interesting? He's so far from predictable it's scary. This is wrong, I can't like him. He's too old for me anyway…I mean…he was turned at the age of like twenty and he's lived for centuries! It's too odd.' _I thought willing the blush down as I walked back my dorm. My mind was blank the rest of the night as I lay in bed. Then I dozed off to sleep waking up by my alarm clock playing 'I'm sorry' by Flyleaf.

"Ugh…" I sighed holding my head. It had been spinning last night and today I had a migraine.

"You okay?" Sam asked noticing my pained expression I wore.

"It's just a little headache. I'm alright." I said not opening my eyes to look at her.

"Well that's understandable, I mean you had a lot of stuff happen yesterday." She said getting out of bed.

'_Yea, you have no idea Sam.' _I thought frowning.

"We should get ready." She said putting a hand on my back.

"Yeah" I agree opening my eyes.

We got ready and walked to our first class. The first set of classes I had went by pretty quickly but then I looked at my schedule and I had mythology. I walked into the class but stopped abruptly as I spotted the teacher. It was Dr. Integra.

"C'mon Steph don't just stand there!" Collin said wrapping a hand around my waist.

"Get away from me you pervert!" I said pushing him away.

That class of course went by so slowly. I thought I was there for 90 years when class was finally over. It was crazy, I thought that I kept seeing him glance over at me every few minutes and when he did all the memories of me being with him came back all at once. The thoughts would linger there for a little while but they left as I tried my hardest to concentrate on the lesson which I couldn't understand at all. I looked at my schedule for my next class. I found myself whacking my hard cover big math book against my head. I had ELA with Dr. Integra as the teacher. He read some plays aloud. His voice was flat and I couldn't help but get sidetracked and think about him and what had happened. Those memories were burnt into my mind and I could do nothing to erase them.

My thoughts were interrupted by Dr. Integra calling my name. "Stephanie, Stephanie." He called.

"What?" I asked shocked being shaken back by Jake who sat next to me.

"Start reading scene 8 act 19." Dr. Integra said catching my eyes. I nodded and started reading. When I was finished he started reading again. When we stopped listening to him read he let the heavy book fall on his metal desk making my senses alert. "I have a project for you." He said to the class and everyone sighed. "You will each be paired up with someone and you will work on a play for the fall festival." He explained.

Some guy in the back raised his hand. "Yes, Darren?" Dr. Integra asked rolling his eyes slightly.

"Do we get to pick out partners?" Darren asked.

"No, The person you are sitting next to will be your partner." Dr. Integra said meeting my shocked eyes. I looked to my left and saw Jake sitting there. I blushed thinking of all the romance plays that I had heard. Romeo and Juliet was the main one that came to mind.

Dr. Integra started handing out papers to everyone. "These are the plays that I want you to perform for the festival. You will have until Thursday of next week to work on your parts. On Friday you will perform them in front of the class and I will pick the best actors and actresses to perform in the festival. And before you ask you will be graded on this." He said eyeing Darren. When he got to Jake and I He handed us the pieces of paper and I reviewed the play. It was from the movie 'Queen of the Damned'. That was one of my favorite movies and I could already quote everyone's parts but that wasn't the problem. The problem was the part we had gotten was a really intense part in the movie that involved Jesse and Lestat; a mortal and a human.

'_How ironic!' _I thought glaring at Dr. Integra. I looked at the play again.

Queen of the Damned; Scene8 Act 2:

Jesse on her knees Lestat: boo. Jesse looks behind her and Lestat puts a hand out for her. She takes it and he helps her up. He's smirking and she's staring in his eyes. That was quite a performance. You should be more careful.

Jesse: Thanks.

Lestat: for what?

Jesse: when you saved me

Lestat: how presumptuous. Lestat walks around Jesse so…you know Marius.he walks beside her and she looks over he walks in front of her. Jesse has her eyes glued to Lestat and she nods.

Jesse: well, I know a lot of things.

Lestat: not how to stay alive apparently.

Jesse: well I guess we have that in common then, although I think I'm a little ahead of the race here.

Lestat: well, I can fix that. He walks toward her and she steps back gasping

Jesse: your song redeemer it's about the girl with the violin, isn't it? … Yeah, he stops and she stops face to face

Lestat: isn't, and what else do you think you know?

Jesse: I ugh… He steps forward and she steps back

Lestat: you're ugh, shaking.

Jesse: cold.

Lestat: grabs her waist as they walk backward or frontward still cold?

Jesse: shaking her head uh ugh.

Lestat: so…go on, tell me more about me. Lestat pins her to the wall

Jesse: swallows hard and Lestat grabs her hand lightly you…you want…

Lestat: what do I want? He moves her hand next to her head

Jesse: you yearn…

Lestat: what do I yearn?moves his thumb to hers and cuts it

Jesse: Ohh! She gasps looking at her thumb

Lestat: for what do I yearn he moves her hand to his face and licks the blood off her thumb. She swallows hard

Jesse: trembling to walk with the living… out of the…colder places of eternity. He looks up at her taking her thumb out of his mouth

Lestat: well, that makes you a very cleaver librarian. He takes a few steps away I knew I left that journal somewhere. He looks at the ally then looks at her so was it a good read?

Jesse: walks forward toward him it touched me.

Lestat: did it now? She shakes her head yes still walking toward him. He takes one step toward her don't worry Jesse…your kind never satisfies my thirst. He walks away and she watches his back

Jesse: Lestat I know something that's not I in your journal… He stops and turns around and slowly walks back but stops himself

Lestat: what?

Jesse: you still have the violin don't you? I understand, after all, it's only human. End scene

I rolled my eyes.

"Does your wrist hurt?" Jake asked and I turned my head.

"What?" I asked.

He looked down between us. "You're rubbing your wrist." I followed his gaze.

When I realized that I was doing that I stopped and blushed. "Oh ugh…" I said.

"Let me see." He said grabbing my wrist softly.

"Wait no…" I said trying to pull my wrist away but whenever I jerked away it hurt even more.

"It's alright, I won't hurt you." He said and I relaxed blushing. He rubbed my wrist softly with a little pressure. "Feel better?" He asked.

I blushed as I took my hand back. I nodded. "Thanks" I said as my face got redder.

"You know, the veins in the wrist..." Dr. Integra said taking my wrist I had been rubbing. "They are the main arteries in your body so if one of them should break…" He said and he pressed on the cuts. I snapped my eyes shut and clenched my skirt hard. "Your body would automatically start shutting down and if you didn't get medical help in a half an hour you would die." He said.

"Hey!" Collin yelled at Dr. Integra as he saw my extremely pained expression.

"What are you doing to her!" Jake said sharply.

My clenched hand started shaking. "Calm down you two, he didn't mean to press on my wrist that hard. He was just trying to make sure my wrist was okay. I mean he is my doctor after all." I said trying my hardest to smile as I opened my eyes.

I saw Jake glare at Dr. Integra and Dr. Integra glared back softly. He let my wrist go and I pulled it in rubbing it.

"Precisely" Dr. Integra said simply and he turned around and before he reached his desk the school bell rang.

I checked my schedule and I had Tai Chi. Just what I needed, more pain.

"I have Tai Chi next too." Jake and Collin said synchronized. I sighed.

"Lets go…" I said rolling my eyes standing up. I walked to the girls locker room and changed into my gym uniform. It was a T shirt with maroon sleeves and maroon shorts. I walked to Tai Chi class and the teacher had us line up. She walked down the line and she picked me and three other kids in the class. She walked down the line again but stopped at me.

She looked at me. "You, your name is Stephanie right?" She asked.

"Yes" I said nodding.

"You've had some experience in Tai Chi as well as, Karate, Tai Kwan do and Kendo. So I expect that you have a high advantage over the others. I want you to show the class a fight." She said. I looked at her shocked.

"What do you mean a fight? You want me to fight someone?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yes…" She paused. "I want you to fight me." She said and I was shocked. Kids in the class gasped. "Do you accept this challenge?" She asked as her eyes narrowed.

I became confident and nodded.

"Good, do you want to use the head gear and pads or do you just want to do a straight one on one?" She asked.

"If it's okay I'd like to make it a straight one on one." I said. This time she looked shocked.

"Ok, Lets get started then." She said and she grabbed my wrist. It was the one that Dr. Integra had abused both times. I had a bandage over the cuts on my right as well as the left. She stopped in the middle of the gym floor. "You're sure you don't want me to put a mat down?" She asked.

"I'm sure." I said softly.

"What's this?" She asked turning my wrist over. I heard whispering in the background.

"I fell and scraped my wrists, don't worry about me, I'll be fine. The one you should be worrying about is yourself." I said smirking getting into a stance. She smirked and got into a stance herself.

"Confident as ever, I like that in a girl. It shows she won't back down even in the worst situations." She said complimenting me. I had asked Sam about my teachers and she said that Miss. Saunders was hard on all of her students especially the lazy ones.

"Are you sure?" I asked. She said nothing.

She made the first move kicking and punching. I blocked it and jabbed her in the stomach, I did a back flip and tripped her as she charged at me. We fought for a good half an hour and by the time it was half over I was starting to feel pain in my chest and wrists.

"What's wrong Stephanie, getting tired?" She taunted.

"No" I said dodging her. I knew I had to end this fight now or I would either pass out or start bleeding. I made a final blow jabbing her in the stomach and in the neck then I kicked her away from me. I sighed and stood up straight I knew I had won. Miss. Saunders was just lying on the ground shaking. She would be in pain for a little bit but she would be okay. The kids in the class were going to run over to her but I put a hand up as if saying 'stop let her be'.

She regained herself and the students sighed in relief or in annoyance that she got up. She sat up and I walked over to her. I put a hand to her and she gladly took it. I helped her up and she straightened out her back.

"That was the first time in a long time that a student was able to surpass me on their first try. And this is a first that a new student surpassed me on her first day." She said smirking as she looked at me. "You're good, I'll give you that. You hardly tried when we were in battle!" She exclaimed. "Just go easy on the others." She said looking at the other students that looked at her horrified as if saying 'are you kidding me!? I'm not ever going to fight her!'. She and I both laughed.

"I'll take you on Miss. Saunders" I heard a familiar voice. It was one that I wouldn't ever forget, but I never thought I'd hear that voice ever again.

She looked toward the entrance to the gym. "Well, well, if it isn't the famous Mr. Damon." She said smiling. I saw a tint of red in her face. I looked up and I was shocked, I gasped blushing as I put my hands over my mouth as my thoughts were confirmed. "Class this is Mr. Damon, he is an old friend of mine." She explained to the class. Then she turned her attention to him. "I thought I'd never see you again." She said. My eyes were glued onto him. She had said the words that were ringing my head like the loud school bell.

"Who's this?" He asked and I felt his eyes on me. I put my hands down but the blush just got redder and redder as he walked toward me. I bit my lip to stop from reaching out and crying onto his chest like I had done so many years ago. I wanted to know where he had been and why he had left me to endure all the pain that I had.

"This is Stephanie Ayame she actually defeated me at my own game. It's her first day here." Miss. Saunders explained.

"Hmn really, I guess she has talent then." He said to her then directed his attention toward me. "I knew a woman with the last name Ayame once. She died long ago." His eyes narrowed and I knew he recognized me. He hadn't changed a bit. Of course that was understandable, I mean he is a vampire and that's a side effect of the vampirism gene.

I looked at him and hardly moving my lips I spoke. "I thought I'd never see you again." I whispered.

"Well I should go, I have to visit a few other friends." He said to Miss. Saunders. "It was nice meeting you, and I hope we can meet again and maybe you could show me what you've got. Miss. Saunders never really was as good as she said." He said smirking holding a hand out to me. I took it and felt a little shock. I tried not to jump but my eyes met his. I knew he felt that as well. Miss. Saunders watched us interested.

"I-It was nice meeting you as well Mr. Damon." I said swallowing hard.

We were interrupted by the school bell.

"Next practice you will be partnered up and you will practice!" Miss. Saunders yelled to everyone as they left the gym.

I let my hand drop away from his and started to walk away after everyone was out of the gym. My wrist was caught by someone's cold hand and I gasped and bit my lip.

"Stephanie…" It was him, Gabriel. The vampire who gave me happiness and comfort but left me only to be swallowed by darkness. "I haven't forgotten about you…" He began and tears formed in my eyes. "Remember that." He said and I turned around but no one was there, not even Miss. Saunders.

"Steph!" I was interrupted by Jake's voice. I whipped my eyes and turned to him.

"S-Sorry, I was just saying goodbye to Mr. Damon and Miss. Saunders" I said. I rolled my eyes knowing that what I said was totally idiotic.

"Let's get going before Mr. Theresa molests us," He said with an involuntary shudder. "I've heard rumors." He said probably noticing my odd expression of doubt.

"Alright be right there you go on ahead I gotta do something first." I told him.

"Kay, I'll see you at gymnastics then." He said. "Bye" He waved and ran to class.

I sighed and turned but bumped into someone. "Oh sorry." I said looking up. It was a guy with hazel eyes and blonde hair.

"It's okay, Stephanie right?" He asked.

"Yeah" I answered.

"The names Andrew Griffin." He said flashing me a brotherly smile.

"Hi, I just gotta do something first you can come along if you like." I told him and he nodded.

"I'm a third year student here. You're a first year right?" He asked as we walked to the locker room. I didn't need to change I just hand to replace the bandage I had on. The cuts were starting to tear and I felt the blood slowly seeping through the thick bandage. I walked to my locker and took out my bag.

"Yeah, today's my first day here I transferred from Coventry high. My favorite sport is track and my favorite food is red apples. My birthday is May sixteenth and I'm 16." I said replacing the bandage as he lent against the lockers. When I was finished I looked at him. "I am best friends with Samantha a first year student and yes I am a virgin. Is that enough information?" I asked looking him in the eyes closing my locker.

"What's with the cuts? Did you really fall or are you a cutter?" He asked as his eyes narrowed. I blushed a little and blinked.

"I'm a cutter…go ahead laugh and tease me, call me emo do whatever you're here to do just get it done fast, I have another class to get to." I said.

"I'm not going to laugh at you or call you emo, actually I could care less." He began. I was confused and I guess he could see it on my face because he smirked. "I'm horrible at Tai Chi and I was wondering if you would wanted to give me some lessons." He said.

I rolled my eyes and glared at him. I knew he was lying and he laughed.

"Okay okay, you got me. Man you can really understand people! Anyway, I'm actually Miss. Saunders best student well, that is before you came along. Although I am her best student I haven't been able to defeat her in a fight whereas you fought and defeated her on your first try and first day." He said.

"Your point?" I asked.

"I was wondering if you could tutor me." He said and I knew he was telling the truth.

"Alright, whatever. When do you want to start?" I asked.

"After class today." He said. "Well, I mean if that's okay." He said catching himself.

"Good catch, but I can't do it after class but maybe 2 hours after class we could meet in the gym and begin there is that good for you?" I asked.

"It's perfect." He said perking up.

"Alright, I'll see you after class… oh, and my face is up here." I said smirking a little as he turned red.

I walked away and I felt his gaze on me. I rolled my eyes, he seemed nice and sweet but so immature.

"Hey!" I jumped as I saw Jake standing at the entrance of the locker room. I blushed madly. "What are you doing here?! I thought you went to gymnastics class?" I asked feeling my face getting redder and redder by the second.

"I was waiting for you and you didn't come now c'mon! We have three minutes to get to class!" He said grabbing my hand and dragging me off to gymnastics class.


	11. A song playing discrepancy

_Chapter eleven:_

Once we got to gymnastics Mr. Theresa told me to go change. I had to change into a bathing suit type thing. It was a red full body swim suit with white gems sewn into it diagonally.

When I came out Mr. Theresa told us to sit on the bleachers so I took a seat on the first row next to Jake and Sam. I was trying not to laugh. Jake was wearing pretty much the same thing that I was and it was so hilarious.

"Who here has had any experience in gymnastics?" Mr. Theresa asked sternly.

I raised my hand and looked around there was one other girl who had her hand raised.

"Pitiful," He sighed to himself. "You there, what's your name?" He asked pointing to the other girl.

She stood up. She had short blonde hair and green eyes. "My name is Melody Adorno." She had a high pitched girly voice that somehow annoyed me.

"How long have you done gymnastics?" He asked.

"I've done it for two years, and then I joined cheerleading." She asked nervous.

"What do you specialize in?" He asked not moving a muscle.

"The vault." She answered shakily.

"Good and you?" He said turning his attention to me.

I looked up at him. He has brown hair like in the military and brown eyes. He wore a sweat outfit that was black and white. I stood up. "My name's Stephanie Ayame and I have done gymnastics for six years." I explained.

His expression softened from stern and hard to a more appropriate expression.

"What do you specialize in?" He asked putting his hands on his hips, his clip board in his right hand.

"I am better at the balance beam and the uneven bars." I answered.

"Good, now both of you! With Melody starting I would like to see what you know." Mr. Theresa said.

We did our stuff and I did a balance beam routine to the song 'My leftovers' by the Porcelain and the Tramps which everyone loved. Once the class was over I walked to my dorm and changed into a long sleeve blue and white shirt where the sleeves were blue and white stripes like the knee socks I wore. I had short black shorts with a black belt.

I walked to Dr. Integra's room annoyed. I didn't want to go but Sam made me go saying it was for my own good and it would help if I cooperated and did what I was told. But I challenged her and needless to say she locked me out of the room until I got it fixed up. So now I'm annoyingly knocking on Dr. Integra's door waiting for him to open and drag me into a world of anger. My thoughts were interrupted by Dr. Integra opening the door leaning on the doorway smirking at me.

"What!?" I asked annoyed.

I saw the laughter in his eyes and I glared at him. "Why can't you just obey me like Sam did? She followed my orders and locked you out until you came to me. How nice, now I know your weakness, you can't say no to Sam." He said and I blushed anger bubbling beneath my skin.

"Shut up and just get it over and done with!" I said closing my eyes as I walked in walking past Dr. Integra. I sat on the bed that lay against the far wall. "So what are you going to do? I asked playing with the black ribbon I still had on. I thought it looked cute on me so I kept it on.

"I'm going to give you a shot." He said walking in and slamming the door behind him which made me jump a little disturbed at the thoughts that ran through my mind.

"How big is the needle?" I asked curiously trying desperately to keep my anger and annoyance level down.

"It's a regular needle, like the one you get for your flu shot." He said from the other room. I heard clanging like needles and surgery instruments hitting a metal table. Then he came out with said needle in hand.

My eyes motioned to the needle and I looked at the dark red liquid inside. It was almost full and worry found it's way to my expression. "What's in there?" I asked a little nervous.

"Don't worry, it's not going to harm you, and it doesn't have any side effects." He said as he walked over to me and I pulled up my sleeve but not long after Dr. Integra's hand was on mine making me stop and look up at him. "This shot isn't going to be injected in your arm." He said and an eyebrow rose.

"Then where is it going to be injected?" I asked feeling heat of embarrassment and anger climbing to my face.

"I'm going to inject the needle in your neck." He said looking down at me as I smirked. "What?" He asked after a long pause.

"It's kind of ironic that you're a vampire and that needle with an unknown substance in it is going to be injected into my neck, quite the opposite of a vampire huh?" I asked.

He smirked a little. "Just because I'm a vampire doesn't mean you can tease me about it. You know I didn't want to be turned into this when I was turned." He said talking to cover up the small needle piercing my neck. I cringed a little at the sudden unexpected pain and his eyes locked with mine. "Did I hurt you?" He asked being patient with me.

"No, umn can I ask you a question?" I asked

"Sure, I am your teacher after all." He said blinking and I noticed that his eyes were starting to turn a reddish color.

"How old were you when you were turned, I mean, you don't look old at all!" I said catching myself.

"I was nineteen." He said.

"And no one noticed that you didn't age?" I asked.

"Some did and at that point in my life they were the best candidates for my feeding." He said answering my questions completely.

"So, umn…"I said blushing not wanting to ask the question in case it opened closed memories.

"How was I turned? I was actually sleeping with this woman. Her name was Zoey Montgomery. My brother and I fought over her many times until she chose me to live as her husband. I never really was in love with her per say her for it. But she told me that I was fool and I would never make an acceptable husband. She killed my parents and turned my brother like she had done to me. My brother and I killed her and we moved on with our long lives." He said his eyes showing sadness.

"I'm so sorry; having to kill the one you loved and trusted. That must have been hard on you and your brother." I said.

"It's no big deal, it's been centuries and I have gotten over it." He said.

There was a long awkward silence and then I spoke. "It's kind of ironic huh?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" He asked in his same tone.

"You're teaching mythology and yet you're a vampire. Imagine the kids faces if they ever found out?" I said smirking

He half laughed. "Hmph, that is quite ironic, but that isn't why I chose to be the teacher for mythology. I wanted to do it just to show my students that these creatures are as real as you and me." He said.

"That's pretty good. I mean, being a vampire and wanting to tell people of your existence. It's unheard of from what I've read and heard." I said.

"Vampires do have rules but it is your chose to reveal your identity or hide it for the rest of your life. I chose to tell my students but in a way that they'll have to figure it out themselves." He said.

"So why did you chose to reveal yourself to me so easily?" I asked wondering.

There was an awkward silence of staring. "I wanted to know how you would handle it and how the students would take it if I ever chose to tell them." He said as his eyes narrowed a bit.

There yet again was another awkward silence. "Is it almost done?" I asked feeling heat rush to my face.

"No, actually your body is rejecting the change." He said.

"WHAT!?" I asked jerking away from him ripping the needle out and tripping Dr. Integra so he fell on top of me.

I blushed madly as I looked at the situation. Fortunately Dr. Integra had caught himself as I on the other hand fell back onto the bed. Dr. Integra stood up and helped me up.

"What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'change'?" I asked getting very angry.

"I put my blood and mixed it with yours, so that you aren't a vampire but you have some vampire effects, like you can't die unless you are burned to death." He said shaking his head in his hand.

"Sorry, I thought you meant…" I said but stopped.

"It's alright, I have to take out the blood though, otherwise you die. Just because you have vampire blood you are not immortal and you have human blood in you as well…" He said looking me in the eyes.

"I get it; it's alright, just hurry it up and get it over and done with." I said moving my hair out of the way to show my neck. Dr. Integra stared at it a bit shocked.

"There are other ways to extract the blood other than feeding off of you." He said biting his lip. I knew he wanted human blood and to the looks of it he hadn't had much in a long time.

"Yeah, but this is the quickest and I would like to get to my practice." I said grabbing one end of the ribbon and pulled it so it untied and I took it off of my neck. I was doing him a favor, and I didn't want to hear it from him later.

"You're sure you want me to do this?" He asked.

I swallowed. "Just do it." I said closing my eyes.

"I don't expect you to get used to this and it will hurt at the beginning." He said and after waiting, bracing myself for pain I felt his body and then his lips on my neck unexpectedly and I tried not to shiver. I bit my lip and then I felt his teeth grow and sink into my neck slowly. I tightened my grip on the bed sheets and I drew blood on my lip which I didn't bother to lick away. I opened my eyes and saw the room and Dr. Integra's broad shoulders and I cringed a bit as Dr. Integra tightened his grip on my arms. It felt warm after a while and I sighed as all emotions were drowned out by pure warmth and calmness. My grip slowly loosened and my breath started getting heavy and my eyes snapped shut. I knew then why most people called the vampire myth sensual. And just before it became unbearable he withdrew his mouth and I felt his gaze on me. "Did I hurt you any?" He asked after a pause of only the sound of my frantic pulse and my pants. I opened my eyes slowly trying to recover. I shook my head no and I looked at his face. He put his hand on my neck opposite his bite mark that was slowly healing over. "Your skin is so smooth and warm. So foreign." He said then he carefully maneuvered his head so his lips were but a centimeter away from mine.

I closed my eyes and my heart rate picked up. I wanted to kiss his so badly but I knew that doing that would be like surrendering to my enemy.

I felt his cold breath on my lips and I tightened my grip on the white sheets.

"That makes me wonder." I said and I could feel his gaze on me and I opened my eyes a little.

"What?" He asked standing up slowly.

"Have you even felt a girls' body after you were turned?" I asked blushing even more.

"No." He said emotionless. I made up my mind at that second and I stood up and hugged him.

"A girl's body is so different from a guy because a guy's body is ridged and a girl is smooth and warm like you said. I mean I'm not experience with men but, I have hugged guys enough to know the difference." I said closing my eyes as heat gathered in my cheeks. I felt his hands on the small of my back and I gasped a little at his cold touch.

"You're trembling." He stated this simply. I stood there awkwardly then Dr. Integra did something I thought he never would. "Steph," He said and I was thrown to the floor. My eyes widened and I blinked. When I opened my eyes again Dr. Integra was over me holding my wrists down over my head.

"Ah! Get off! What are you doing!?" I semi yelled squirming under his body trying to get my wrists free. I was kicking and arching until Dr. Integra caught my hips on his. I relaxed at that point as I turned my beat red face to the side panting. "What. Do you. Think. You're doing?" I said through pants.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted me to touch you?" He asked making it sound worse than what it really was.

"I didn't mean pin me to the ground by my wrists!" I yelled as I tried to get him off making me arch then I came back down when I realized that I would never be able to break his grip.

He smirked. "Now, how should I use this to my advantage?" He asked and I blushed thinking I knew what he meant. I looked him in the eye and I realized that his eyes were red but my thoughts faded away as he crouched down even lower than he already was on his elbows. "You know, I never told you that I ever loved you. But now I have you so helpless and I don't have to tell you, I can show you." He said as he started kissing my neck. I closed my eyes and bit my lip trying not to moan.

"D-Dr. Integra." I sighed. "S-stop! Stop it!" I pleaded as he went lower to my color bone and I lost it and moaned. I felt him smirk and I blushed even more. This was so wrong on so many levels but I was afraid to say something. So afraid of what people might think if they saw me like this under the care of a doctor/teacher/vampire. I've never been so scared in my life then when he pressed his presence against me knowing exactly what he was going to do while I had no clue. I tightened my hands into fists and they got tighter and tighter as he got lower and lower on my neck down to my chest and lingered on my collar bone then worked his way back up to my neck.

What'll happen? Is she secretly in love with this Dr. Integra or is she in love with Jake? Who will she choose? Read and find out!! But until next time…TO BE CONTINUED! I'll update asap PROMISE!!


	12. Can you change friendship?

_Chapter twelve:_

I had no clue what to do then there was a knock at the door and Dr. Integra's head lifted eyeing the door. I sighed inside in happiness. I felt a shock of joy spark through my whole body. Dr. Integra's teeth were long and his eyes were red and as he grimaced his teeth showed even more. He quickly vanished then appeared at the door, I didn't move, that is until I heard the voice from beyond the door as Dr. Integra opened the door a crack.

"It's been a long time…brother…" His voice was clear as day and the joy that filled my body was soon emptied with fear and sorrow. I would of course never forget his voice, this man beyond the door, Gabriel. I stood up and booked it to the kitchen and hid behind the arch of the door near the refrigerator. The door opened and their bodies moved further into the room then I heard the door slam making me jump a little. The footsteps stopped and my heart started racing. I didn't know why but I was so nervous and scared. I heard nothing and for the longest time there was silence and I was holding my breath afraid that if I even breathed they would find me here. I looked over the arch and I saw them just standing face to face. I saw Gabriel turn his head and I gasped thinking he saw me as I turned back. I still heard nothing but I snapped my eyes shut knowing that he saw me. Everything was silent and my heart was ringing in my ears. I blinked my eyes open and I looked around the arch but when I saw no one there I turned quickly but was pinned with my wrists over my head.

"Ah!" I breathed as my back hit the wall.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" He asked.

"Damnit Gabriel!" I sighed blinking and looking up at him and into his equally blue eyes. "I thought that I'd never see you again." I said as my eyes narrowed and I looked down. My heart was still racing though I tried to calm it down.

"You're panicking." Gabriel said pushing up on my wrists a little more.

"Well of course I'm panicking!" I said and I looked to the side and leaning on the arch was Dr. Integra. I looked back at Gabriel. "I mean, it's two vampires in the same room with only one mortal!! You tell me what's wrong with that picture!" I snapped.

"You know that we wouldn't ever hurt you." He said.

"Yeah? Well tell that to him." I said looking at Dr. Integra in his eyes. My expression softened as I noticed his eyes. "Your eyes." I breathed.

"Either way, You have to stay with me now. I won't let you out of my sight end of story." Gabriel said releasing my hands.

"Why should I stay with you? You were the one who left me!!" I said as tears filled my eyes remembering the painful goodbye.

"Look, I'm sorry about that but you are still staying with me." He said stubbornly.

"Why should I? I've waited so long for you to come back to me and each time you never did!" I said turning around and walking away. I held myself as tears fell from my eyes. Why was I feeling this way?

I heard nothing only my heavy gasps for air. Then I felt a cold body and arms that wrapped around my shoulders. I looked up shocked and I gasped as I felt his cold breath slowly graze my neck. "Look, I'm sorry about leaving you but you were too young and wouldn't understand the things I was supposed to tell you. Your mother thought she would live until you were at least a teenager but that didn't happen." Tears till falling from my eyes I took in every word that Gabriel said as if they reached inside and grabbed a hold of my heart. "I was supposed to protect you but I was stupid and didn't do as I was told. I let you endure the death of your father and the death of your aunt and uncle when I should have been there to sooth your pain. I know how sever the pain is and it's my fault that I wasn't there to help you. I'm sorry." His apology was immediately granted and I forgave him instantly. He didn't deserve to feel this way and by saying those things I added more and more guilt on him and I felt sorry for him.

"No," I said calming down. I felt him look up. "Don't be sorry, you did what you needed to do and if you hadn't done what you did I wouldn't be so observant of everyone and everything around me. So don't be sorry." I said whipping my eyes. I walked forward and Gabriel let go of my shoulders. I sighed and turned around. "Now that you're finally here I guess we have a lot of catching up to do." I said flashing a smile toward the two older men. "Oh, Gabriel, I have one question." I said taking a step forward.

He looked at me awkwardly. "What would that be?" He said formally.

I smiled and ran up to him embracing his body in my arms. "What took you so long to come back?" I asked smiling as I closed my eyes against his chest.

I felt his body relax a bit and I knew he was smiling too. "Does it matter? I'm here now aren't I?" He said and joy burst from my insides.

"Ok you two, you can have your lovers spaz later I think Stephanie had to meet up with someone don't you?" Dr. Integra said sounding a bit annoyed.

I backed away from him and laughed. "Yeah, but, how did you know about that?" I asked as an eyebrow rose.

"I have my ways and you better get going before you're late." He said motioning his eyes to the clock overhead.

I looked up at it and swore. "I really have to go I'll see you two later! Bye!" I said running out of the door. I ran to the gym and there sitting in the stands was Andrew. He looked bored with his hand on his knee holding up his head.

"Hey!" I said cheerfully waving hi.

He turned his head and for a second I thought his eyes were red. I jumped a little and blinked and looked again; Hazel. Was I seeing things?

"What took you so long?" He asked standing up.

"I was doing stuff and I totally blanked out. I'm sorry." I said trying to sound happy and not freaked out by what I just saw.

"That's fine." He said and flashed me a smile then jumped down. It sounds normal but he jumped from the top step to the hard wood gym floor that was shining from the light. I starred shock. _'How did he just do that?!'_ I asked myself.

"H-how did you just…" I asked. I didn't mean to say those words but they just rolled off my tong unable to stop them.

He turned to me with red eyes. "What?" He asked stupidly.

"You just jumped from the top step to the floor. How did you just do that without hurting yourself?" I asked amazed not at the fact of how far he just jumped but at his red eyes.

"Oh, Shit." He swore putting a hand to his right eye and intertwined his fingers in his blond hair. "Damnit, I didn't want this to happen." He said frustrated at himself by the looks of it.

"Want what to happen you're just good at landing. Many people who do gymnastics or martial arts are." I said not really wanting to know what he was talking about.

He looked at me astonished. Then he flashed me a brotherly smile. "Yeah, I know but I was just thinking of something else." He said standing up straight and looking me in the eyes. I blinked and the red eyes turned hazel again.

"Ok…" I said looking at him like 'ok then that was weird'. "Should we start?" I asked.

"Yeah sure what first?" He asked as we walked side by side to the middle of the court.

"Ok, I want you to fight me." I said this simply.

He looked at me shocked. "What!? Are you mad? I can't fight you! You'd kill me!" He yelled with a smirked letting me know he was being sarcastic.

I crouched down getting into a stance. H smirked and got into a stance himself. We stood there for a while and I got sick of waiting and I threw the first punch. We went on like this for about a good hour and we both stopped and he was panting. I stood up straight and walked over to him. "Are you ok?" I asked.

"I'm. Fine." He said through pants. I felt a tap on my shoulder and I looked but no one was there. I was a bit freaked out and then I looked back finally noticing that the frantic pants had disappeared. I turned back and Andrew was smirking at me and before I knew it I stumbled back and landed on my hands and knees. I held my stomach and coughed.

"Are you alright?" Andrew asked running over to me and knelling down to me.

"I'm ok how are-…" I said but was silenced at the fact that Andrew was so close and that I could feel his cold breath on my neck. Before I realized it my body was frozen and everything else blurred out of my mind. There was only me and Andrew in the middle of complete darkness.

'_How does it feel to have your very essence being sucked from your shivering fragile body?' _This time I heard Andrew's voice in my head. I felt my eyes widen and at that very moment I was pulled back to reality.

"Stephanie, Stephanie! Hello!?" Andrew called out to me.

"Huh?" I asked knelling back on my feet still holding my stomach.

"You like spaced out. Are you ok?" He asked. "Do you need to go to your doctor?" I looked up into his eyes. Yet again his eyes were a deep red.

"I'm fine, and I don't need to go to the Dr. Integra." I said and he like gasped but tried to hide it.

"I had Dr. Integra when I first began but I was just transferred to a different doctor because some new kid was taking my place." He said smirking.

I stood up and stumbled a bit but Andrew caught me. "Are you sure you are alright?" He asked with concern.

I looked up at my new friend. "I'll be fine. But I think I know what you have to work on so we'll work on that another day but right now I have to go rehearse." I said walking away from him. I didn't bother to look back and when I was out the doorway I leant against the wall closed my eyes and sighed.

"Why is it I only see you when you're in pain?" I heard from in front of me. I opened my eyes and Jake was standing in front of me.

"Oh, sorry, I know I took way to long and we planned to meet after class so we could rehearse."I said putting my hand that was wrapped around my waist to my head. "Man! I have such a bad headache." I said.

"C'mon, lets get to your dorm before Sam and the others get annoyed." Jake said lending a hand out. I remembered this happening before and just then I felt a shock in my heart.

"Ah!" I breathed as I clenched my clothes that were over my heart in pain. I slid to the ground but Jake caught me and knelt down with my limp body. "It hurts…" I managed to say through the pain.

"It's ok, I'm here." I heard Jake say and then everything went away. No more pain or the strange feeling of sorrow. I opened my eyes and found that Jake was holding me tight.

"Jake…" I sighed a little. "I'm so sorry." I said feeling like complete idiot.

"It's fine I told you already, I'll always be there for you whenever you need someone." He said as his eyes connected with mine and I sat up facing him.

"W-we should get going." I said sounding like it never even happened.

"Ok, can you stand?" He asked standing himself.

"I think so." I said and I looked up at him and he lends me a hand which I gladly took. He pulled me up and I used to much strength and I stood up onto his chest. I gasped blushing madly and it got deeper as I felt his cold arms wrap around me hugging me close. I didn't move, I wanted to stay this close to him. He made every emotion I felt turn into pure happiness. I suddenly wanted to be more to him, to be the only one he shares his secrets with, to be more than just friends. I closed my eyes and rested my head on his broad chest. He hugged me tighter and it almost felt as if he never wanted to let me go.

"Stephanie." I heard Jake say and I looked up at him. I blushed as I realized how close our faces were. It felt weird being in the only ones in the middle of this hallway. I felt his cool breath on my tong as I opened my mouth a little in shock. He got closer and closer and my eyes began to automatically shut. I felt his fingers spread through my hair the other arm around my waist. "Stephanie." He said again. His words were just as caressing as hid cold touch and my face got red. I could almost feel his lips against mine and his breath was so close. I tried my hardest to keep my breath at a reasonable pace but my pulse was far too quick to try and slow it down now. My heart felt like a single beat of a drum banging hard against my chest and I was nervous that Jake may just feel the erratic heartbeat against his chest. I felt his body getting a little tense and I was almost certain that he was going to press his cold lips against mine at that very moment.

Ooops sorry guys guess you'll have to wait till next chapter to find out what happens…Will he kiss her? Read and find out well Till next time guys!! Please keep reading


	13. Left alone

_Chapter thirteen:_

I wanted to just push my head that few centimeters and kiss him but I was frozen and couldn't move any part of my body, I didn't even blink.

"My, my! Is that two love birds in a tree I see?" Collin. I jumped a little not expecting the sudden outburst of tease. Great, just magnificent. Of course he barges in at the very instant that Jake is about to kiss me.

'_Damnit Collin! You are so freaking dead it's not even funny!' _I thought as anger bubbled under my skin still mesmerized by the close contact that had just occurred.

"Why are you here Collin?" That once caressing voice was now sharp and angered. No one moved, not even an inch.

"Geez Jake I'm just playin' around." Collin said playfully, yet behind it all I could hear the anger and hate that lurked in the darkness.

'_What's wrong with these two? Aren't they like best friends?' _I asked myself afraid to speak. Jake shot an evil glance at Collin and at that moment everything seemed tense. The air in the hallway grew thick and it got hard to breathe. The tension between the two grew stronger and stronger. I could soon feel both their darkness's filled with rage clash like they were fighting with their minds. I could barely feel my lungs moving and I tried to speak but although I opened my mouth I could not force words to be spoken. My throat swelled up and I felt fear growing in my body very much like the veins that kept my body alive. I forced my legs to move and I stood between the two darkness'. I felt my own darkness growing as if it were being pulled from my body, like the two darkness's called forth my own. Fear shook my body and with that I managed to speak.

"Both of you stop it!" I almost yelled this angry with myself for letting this all happen. "You two are best friends so why are you fighting?" My voice seemed soft and fragile that if you were to barely touch it, it would break into a million pieces. I at that moment just as those last few words were spoken I felt the tension fade and the eyes that were filled with rage were on me with sorrow and pain. I knew I had won. "Let's get going so we can rehearse." I said and Collin turned and headed toward the dorms.

When we got to the dorm we were greeted by Sam who had cooked all kinds of food and drinks so we wouldn't have to leave half way in rehearsal.

"Hey, wanna show our scene?" Collin said standing next to Sam. They were forced to be partners for the play and I felt so horrible for her.

"Sure, you guys go first." I said sitting on the bed with Jake on the side of me. They did their play and I clapped smiling. "You guys did great!" I said.

"Ok, you're up sweetheart." Collin said tilting my head up to him. I slapped his hand away as I stood up and got on my knees.

"Boo." I heard from behind me. I turned my head and there Jake stood. He held his hand out and I grabbed it. He helped me up as I gazed in his eyes. "That was quite a performance. You should be more careful.

"Thanks" I said softly.

"For what?" Jake asked.

"When you saved me." I said simply.

"How presumptuous." Jake said walking around me. "So…you know Marius." Jake kept circling me and I nodded.

"Well I know a lot of things." I said.

"Not how to stay alive apparently." Jake said.

"Well I guess we have that in common then, although I think I'm a little ahead of the race here."

"Well, I can fix that." Jake said as he walked toward me and I gasped.

"Your song redeemer it's about the girl with the violin, isn't it? … Yeah." I said and Jake stopped and I stopped as we came face to face.

"Isn't what else do you think you know?" He asked.

"I ugh," I said and he stepped forward and I stepped back.

"You're ugh, shaking." Jake said still face to face.

"Cold" I replied.

Jake grabbed my waist still moving backward. "Still cold?"

I shook my head. "uh ugh."

"So…go on, tell me more about me." Jake said pinning me to the back wall. My face got red as I thought about his kissing me there on the spot but I kept my mind on the play.

I swallowed hard and Jake grabbed my hand lightly. "You…you want…"

"What do I want?" Jake said moving my hand next to my head.

"You yearn…"

"What do I yearn?" Jake said cutting my thumb with his own,

"Ah!" I gasped as I looked at my thumb. It hurt a lot.

"What do I yearn?" He asked putting my thumb in his mouth. I gasped.

I started trembling not of my free will. "To walk with the living…out of the…colder places of eternity." After I finished Jake looked up at me and took my thumb out of his cold mouth.

"Well that makes you a very clever librarian." Jake said and took a few steps away from me. "I knew I left that journal somewhere." He said then looked at me. "So, was it a good read?"

I walked toward Jake. "It touched me." I said

"Did it now?" He asked and I shook my head yes still walking toward him slowly. He took a step toward me. "Don't worry Jesse…your kind never satisfies my thirst." Jake said and walked away from me. I starred at his shoulders then I opened my mouth.

"Lestat I know something that's not in your journal…" I said and Jake stopped walking away. He turned and started walking toward me but he stopped himself.

"What?" He said amused.

"You still have the violin don't you? I understand, after all, it's only human." I said and we just starred at each other. "And that is our scene!" I said walking over to the bed.

"Why don't we wrap this up, I mean it's already seven." Sam said.

"Yeah and I want to take you to the garden." I said to Sam.

"Why?" She asked.

"Just because, I dunno, I want to." I said. "I mean we haven't had much time together."

"Ok." She said getting up. "Well since I made all this stuff you guys have to stay here and clean it up." Sam said smirking at me. I laughed softly trying not to think of the things that might happen while we're out.

"C'mon Sam!" Collin moaned.

"Let's go Sam." I said motioning my eyes to the door.

We headed out. "Hey!" I yelp as squealing girls run past Sam and I. When I regain myself I look at Sam confused. "What is that all about?" I asked.

"It's probably…" She began but I grabbed her wrists and started to run following the girls.

"Let's go find out!" I said and rushed to where a big crowd of squealing girl stood freaking out in excitement.

"Why are they all here? And I never realized this separate building before…" I said as he walked the rest of the way out the entrance doors. In front of us was a big mansion like building that stood out from the green trees behind it.

"It's like I was trying to say before you dragged me off here..." He began glaring at me playfully, I smiled as if saying 'sorry'. "This is a set of dorms for the not only the smartest kids but also the most popular kids in school. There are girls and boys in the dorms but the boys get more attention from the female student body." She explained just as a few more girls ran by us screaming a name, Adam.

"Oh, hey who's Adam?" I asked curiously not taking my eyes off the ward of screaming girls.

"Oh, that guy those girls were screaming about? His real name is Vincent Melanthios but everyone calls him Adam Melanthios because it's more common than Vincent. He's the head of the most popular people in the school. I would be shocked if he talked to anyone other than the teachers answering questions." She said and I forced my eyes away to look at her.

"Why's that?" I asked my voice flat with a hint of curiosity.

"Well because he doesn't talk and the only way you would be able to hear him talk is to hear him in class but because we have different classes on different sides of the building it's hard to hear him. He almost never smiles or frowns he always keeps a straight face. In a few minutes the doors will open and I caution girls will scream." She said fear in her voice.

"So why do the door open at a certain time?"

"Well the students all go to one place after they get out of class. No one knows where they go and I heard that one girl tried to follow them but the disappeared when they turned a corner. I think that's so gay I mean no one can disappear in a second." She said simply.

"Hey lets go check this out!" I said grabbing her wrist again.

"No! Wait! Stephanie!" She whined as I pulled her toward the crowd of girls. I pushed my way through half of the girls and then everything got quiet and the doors opened. The girls lined up and I pushed my way another four or five feet and then I heard people walking out and everyone started screaming again. I pushed and pushed and I was almost there. I could see only a few heads and then the students coming closer. I tried to push through the crowd and then some girl swore and shoved me making me stumble the rest of the way and into the path of the 'popular'. I thought I was going to land on the ground and I snapped my eyes shut but I felt an arm around my chest and another on my opposite shoulder. The hands were freezing. I opened my eyes and I heard girls gasping. I was standing up but at a slant. I stood up straight and looked at my savior. I looked into a guy about a year older than me. He had white hair not old hair but elegant and amazing. He had one ear ring on his right ear that looked like a deep blue tear drop. On his neck a black ribbon wrapped around loosely and tied in a low bow on his chest. His uniform was different from the ones the boys in our classes wore. It was a black tuxedo thing with black pants. Under the black jacket a white shirt was worn with little symbols on the neck and cuffs. He had a tattoo like thing on his neck with a rose in the middle with diamond shapes and others that made it look like a snowflake. He wore a black glove on his left hand and as I looked at his features his face was unemotional. I looked in his red eyes unable to break away from them. They were beautiful and that would be an understatement. His eyes just drew me in and then I realized that everyone was silent. I felt his right hand graze my neck as the other held my shoulder still.

"U-umn, sorry about that." I said still drowned in those eyes that I knew drove into mine like a knife but not painful but warm.

"Well, it's been a long time…Elena." He said. His words just as caressing as his soft touch. He was gentle in every way but I felt awkward knowing that all eyes were on me. 'My name's not Elena…its Stephanie…what's this guy talking about? I think he's mistaking me for someone else…' I thought to myself.

"Vincent, stop dawdling and let's go." I heard some guy with blonde hair and blue eyes say.

"Joshua, still yourself, we'll go right now, but, Elena is coming with us." Vincent said. 'So, this is Vincent, why does he seem so familiar?' I thought a bit confused.

"What!?" Joshua yelped as his eyes widened. "Are you mad? You know _She _won't allow it!" He said.

"It won't be the same. She understands this one she'll understand why I want her to tag along. That is, if you wish to come with us." Vincent said now talking to me. I still was unable to take my eyes away from his deep mesmerizing ones.

"Umn…I don't think I'm…" I said then he moved his hand that was on my neck to my chin and he tilted it up. He smirked a bit and he brought his head towards mine. My eyes widened as I blushed madly. I was able to tear my eyes away and I looked around. Every girl standing there was blushing.

"Are you sure you can't come?" I felt his breath on my lips then he moved his head not taking his eyes off of me down to my neck. "I'll escort you myself." He said and I shivered as I felt his cold breath on my neck.

"I guess I could come." I said not really knowing what I was saying. My mind was in a type of a haze and it made things even more awkward.

"Good." He said and released me.

"Vincent, are you sure you want to do this?" A girl with dark hair and deep green eyes asked. She had red lipstick on and eyeliner.

"I'm positive let's go we should get going." He said and he grabbed my hand and started walking. I followed behind him and I blushed knowing that everyone was starring. Then I remembered Sam, oh how bad I felt leaving her behind.

"So your name is Elena?" The girl with green eyes asked me tapping me on the shoulder. I still held Vincent's hand but I looked to my side.

I opened my mouth to say that my name was Stephanie but then Vincent spoke for me. "Well her real name is Stephanie but I call her Elena because that is what her name means." He said and that girl looked at the back of his head then at me.

"Well my name is Autumn. If Vincent or any of the others give you a hard time tell me." She said smiling. I smiled back feeling awkward knowing I didn't belong. I shoved off the weird feeling I got.

"So why would they give me a hard time?" I asked Autumn.

"Well, you're pretty and gentle by the looks of it." She said looking up thinking then back at me.

"Oh, I see that you've already made friends with the new girl." Joshua said.

"Please Joshua, don't bother hitting on her, she's not your type she's so out of your league." Autumn said and I cracked a smirk.

"Well let's leave that up to her." He said as Vincent stopped and everyone stopped as well. "well?" Joshua asked bushing my face with his right hand crossing my face. His eyes narrowed and he pressed his lips to my neck kissing me lightly.

"Joshua!" Vincent said releasing my hand and grabbed Joshua's throat looking at him with cruel eyes. Joshua let his hand drop from my face and I stood there watching as the ruthless predator tightened his grip on the others white neck.

"Vincent, calm down it's alright." I said putting my hand on Vincent's shoulder. He calmed down almost immediately and he released Joshua and walked away. We all followed him bit I looked down ashamed that I couldn't do anything to help Joshua.

"How did you get him to calm down that easily?" Autumn asked shocked. I looked at her.

"What do you mean? I just told him to take it easy." I said confused.

"Well he never calms down that easily, I mean, when he's that angry you can't calm him down my saying 'take I easy'. It just never works it's like he's on a completely different planet. How you got to him before…I mean how you got to him that easily was amazing. He must really be attached to you." She said impressed. We stopped again and Vincent knocked on the door in front of us and the door quickly opened and Autumn grabbed my hand. I looked up at her. She smiled at me. "Close your eyes." I did as she told and I felt my body jerk forward my hair fluttering back fiercely.

Find out what happens next!! Keep reading and please review!!


	14. Memories

_Chapter fourteen:_

I felt my body jerk and I opened my eyes but we were in complete darkness. I felt my feet moving uncontrollably.

"Who's the girl?" I heard a woman ask. When I opened my eyes I found myself at the end of a long line.

"Emory, you already know her." Now it was Vincent talking. I heard someone walking toward me and I snapped my eyes shut nervous. "She's delicate, but stronger than most. She has a hard past knows all about our kind." Vincent's voice was getting closer and closer.

'_What is going on? And when he says kind does he mean……….. ?' _My thoughts were interrupted by the still of footsteps.

"Princess?" The woman Exclaimed.

"Yes… it's been over 1000 years but she has finally returned and will end this battle." Vincent said as he stared walking, his footsteps closing in on me.

When they finally stopped they were in front of me. I opened my eyes with my head down and I was right. His feet were right in front of mine. "Vincent, what are you talking about?" I asked lifting my head. I looked deep into his eyes as he looked straight into mine.

"Come with me." He said grabbing my wrist and walking to a desk. There a woman with long curly hair and golden eyes. Her skin so impeccable and clear it amazed me. She smiled at me and there across that smile I saw the long sharp fangs. I wanted to gasp but I was frozen in her gaze. "This is Stephanie.'' Vincent said. I kept my eyes on her but was distracted as something moved on her lap. I looked down and a thin black cat stood starring at me. I reached over to pet the cat but Vincent caught my hand. I looked up at him and he was shaking his head. I rolled my eyes and reached forward petting the young cat. It purred and everyone gasped.

"That's impossible." I heard Emory say.

I looked up at her questionably. "What? How is it impossible im just petting a cat." I said.

"Yes but this cat never lets anyone pet it unless its me." She said wide eyed. "please, have a seat" she said calming down a little.

"So what's all this about?" I asked stupidly. "I mean the whole princess thing and what not."

She looked up at Vincent. "She does not remember."

"Well it has been a long time and she has been reborn so those memories are stored somewhere in her." He said looking at me.

"Take her and get her to remember, when she does, have her come to me … alone." Emory said partially strict.

"Yes Emory." He said looking to me and showing his hand to me. I grabbed it and he walked me down to a tunnel. Walking further and further in, I soon was in darkness.

"Why did you call me Elena?" I asked confused still holding Vincent's arm.

"It was a past life of yours; I'll help you remember them." He said. It was awkward being next to him. He stopped and I did as well. "Elena … "He began as he put a hand to my face. I couldn't see him but it was as if he knew exactly where he was.

"You're a vampire aren't you?" I asked suddenly. My heart beat hard in my chest and my face got hot.

"Yes, and you are my princess." He said.

"But I'm not – well I don't remember being a princess." I said.

He lit a small fire from a torch on the wall. It lit brightly and I could see him in front of me.

"Do you want to remember now?" He asked looking behind him then back at me.

"Yes…" I said unsure of myself.

"Don't move." He said. He put his hand on my cheek and he pressed his lips to mine. As he kissed me I felt sparks of memories. He softly bit my lip practically begging for an entrance which I gladly gave. He pushed me into the wall of the tunnel softly as our toungs danced. More memories flashed. I was in an elegant dress and then I was kissing Vincent again, but this time we were in the tunnel with the one torch set and in the same placement.

'I ….' The memory was cut off just as his lips disconnected from mine. I took in a deep breath of warm air warming my frozen mouth.

"We … kissed … " I said.

He just looked at me still in front of me.

"Yes, before, I was by your side, that is, before we lost you." He said. My breath heavy as he softly kissed my neck. "I want to be by your side." He began, "I don't want to loose you again." With his breath on my neck, I could almost guess what he was going to do next. But I waited in anticipation, and shock.


	15. It happens too fast

Chapter fifteen

"Stop," I heard before me.

"Dr. Integra?" I asked as I spotted him, he was glaring at Vincent.

"Don't go filling her head with illusions and false memories." He growled toward Vincent.

"What are you talking about?" I asked both of them.

This time Dr. Integra was talking toward me. "That memory was a false one to make you believe that they are the ones trying to protect you. Stephanie, I am the one who will protect you, only I can" He said.

I turned to look at Vincent but he had vanished. I knew that I couldn't trust Vincent now.

"What are you doing here?" I asked realizing that he was standing not far away.

"I came for you."

"Why"

He looked a bit ashamed. "If its about what happened in your room I don't care." I said blushing at the thought.

"How can you not care? I almost took advantage of you and you did nothing to resist." He said.

"What was there to do? Against you I am defenseless, you're stronger than me. If Gabriel hadn't come in when he did I was sure you would have. But it doesn't matter," I began as I looked him straight in the eyes. "I trust you."

"How can you trust a person that tried to take advantage of you and could have possibly hurt you?" he asked shocked.

"Because, you weren't yourself, you wouldn't hurt me."

"How do you know that? Your blood is infectious to me. Like a disease that has no cure." He said pinning me to the wall of the tunnel.

"GOD!" I yelped in pain and in frustration. "I know that and it doesn't matter to me. Now leave me alone, I need to find Sam." I said walking away from the vampire.

…

I knocked on the door softly. As my fist connected with the wooden door it was forcefully swung open. "Where the hell did you run off to!?" Sam yelled with her hands on her hips.

"Ha ha ugh I just went to some of Vincent's classes and came back for you." I lied completely.

"Don't leave without me next time." She said with sorrow.

"I doubt there will be a next time but that's a story for another day. I'm going to go on the balcony." I said ignoring her next question.

I locked the door behind me as I stepped out into the night wind. _'I hate lying all the time. I hate being around Dr. Integra and trusting him when I know I shouldn't.' _I thought.

"Still keep to yourself I see." Gabriel's voice caught me off guard and I stumbled as I twisted around.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"I wanted to be with you." He said softly as if embarrassed.

"Well that's a bit fast, we're just catching up now and you want to take our relationship further? Oh my." I said dramatically and sarcastically.

We both laughed. "I knew what my brother was doing to you today." He said and I looked down blushing. "You shouldn't have let him drink from you like he did like he said there are other ways to remove vampire blood." He said sternly.

"It didn't matter to me, he marked me anyway, and doesn't that mean I belong to him?" I asked remembering what his lips on my neck felt like.

"Yes, most occasions when a vampire marks a mortal that mortal is forever bound to that vampire. The vampire can chose to use the mortal as food or as a partner and turn them, but that doesn't matter I marked you as well. Stephanie he could have killed you."

"Don't you think I know that?!" I snapped.

"Then why did you persist when he refused?" He asked me.

"I- …" I found I couldn't answer that. As much as I'd like to say that I didn't like life I couldn't.

My thoughts were interrupted by Gabriel. "You what, you love him? His love isn't love Stephanie! He'll use you until you are of no use to him anymore and kill you later on." His words cut like knives.

"I didn't say I loved him!" I spat.

"You think I wouldn't notice? Stephanie you are fonder of my brother than what you think and he'll use your emotions as a way to get to you."

"How do I know you won't do the same thing? Gabriel I LOVED you! I kept wishing you were with me but you never came. You left me so you tell me who is throwing me away because it isn't Dr. Integra!" I yelled as tears stung in my eyes.

He stood there unemotionally. I knew I had gone too far but I wasn't about to take anything back.

"Fine, I'm sorry I caused you so much pain." He seemed as if he would break apart. "But know that I will protect you no matter what, even if its protection from yourself." He said and disappeared.

I turned and grabbed onto the wood of the balcony. I was trembling and I knew that but I was frozen. Both anger and sadness filled me and I screamed. "DAMNIT!"

I hit the balcony in fists but my hands slipped off the side and I was falling six stories downward. I closed my eyes waiting for the impact and my sure death.

'bam!' the sound came but I felt no pain. As I opened my eyes I saw white everywhere.

"That death was really quick." I said.

"You idiot! You're not dead." I heard Dr. Integra's voice.

I looked down to see that I was in his arms and he was laying on the ground. We were surrounded in chrysanthemums'.

"Dr. Integra! What are you doing!" I asked getting off oh him but kneeling next to his body.

"I told Jake that I was the only one who can protect you." He looked at me and smirked. "But you're such a klutz."

I slapped him and he looked at me confused. "Never do that again."

"What kind of thanks is that?"

I slapped him and he looked at me confused. "Never do that again."

"What kind of thanks is that?"

"One that you'll hate. Stop trying to protect me from everything when it's me you who needs protecting.

"What?" He said as he sat up.

"Never mind" I said blushing and turning my head away from him.

I felt his hand on my cheek and I turned my head. I had no clue what was going on until he was leaning over and kissing me. My eyes were wide for a moment but then I eased into the kiss. _'I can't win.'_ My mind said. The kiss got more intense every minute but the next thing I knew his fangs were deep in my neck.

"Ah!" I gasped as his teeth entered my neck. I tried pushing him away but as he neared his release I felt the warm numb.

I grabbed onto the clothing on his chest as he held me tightly by my arms. Was he proving a point or was he desperate for my blood?

He pulled me in closer making the bite a lot worse. It hurt now and was almost unbearable I pushed against his chest trying to make him let go of me. I yelled out in pain as blood was drawn from me.

When he finally released I was on my back panting. He moved so he was on top of me now. His eyes were normal still but my vision blurred.

"Still trust me? I can easily take your life right now, are you ready for that?" He asked

"I. Was. Right" I said through pants. I brought my wrist up to my face and took off the bandage and put it up to Dr. Integra's lips getting my blood on his lips.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Go ahead, take it." I said swallowing as I strain to stay conscious. He just stared at me. "What are you waiting for, didn't you want my blood?"

He held my wrist to his lips.

He closed his eyes and opened his mouth bearing his teeth. I closed my eyes waiting for the numbness.

"Stop!" He said and I opened my eyes. "Alright, you win. Just come with me to my room." He said pulling me up.

"I can't stand up." I said trying to. He picked me up and started walking.

"You can't keep fighting forever you know." He said.

"I want to stay the way I am even if it means dying for it. And I wouldn't mind dying like this." I said and he stopped and looked down as if I had murdered everyone he loved.

"How can you say that? You have hardly even started life." He said.

"My life isn't as bad as I make it out to be. I wish I could stay this way forever but unlike you I don't have forever." I said.

"Forever isn't that pleasing though." He said as he kept walking.

"So what happened to make you change?"

"What?"

"You're always sarcastic and now your finally acting like there's something special in your life." I said.

"How do you figure that?" He asked but my mind had fluttered away and I was sleeping off the blood loss.

I woke to the sound of water.

"I told you already that damned vampire Vincent took her and tried to change her." It was dr. Integra's voice.

"Yea and I am Elvis, look I know you did this to her. Just tell me what the hell you were thinking!" Jake's voice was yelling.

"I was proving a point. She's fine though isn't she? She didn't resist, she let me do it." Dr. Integra said.

"You still brought harm to her!"

"Just leave, if you keep yelling she will wake up." Dr. Integra's voice was close this time.

I heard stomping then a door slam. I felt a hand stroking my hair and then a little prick on my neck. "I can't keep giving you my blood like this, just give in already." Dr. Integra said.

"I can't" I said softly.

"You're so tough to break." He said with a smile.

"Sometimes it's best to be." I said then fell back to sleep with him stroking my hair.


	16. Sweet seduction

Chapter sixteen

Walking outside the scent of rain was like a breath of life to me. Carrying myself through the endless torrent of water falling from the gray sky, I felt a secret thrill in wandering out into the forest as scantily clad as I was. Most would've been cold, only wearing black shorts and a pink spaghetti strap tank. Most also would've been crazy to even be wandering around in such a fashion during this time of the night but to me it didn't matter.

It was as if the tranquility of the forest was numbing to my senses as well as my body. I should've been worried if the enemy would call to meet with me, strangely though, not a trace of fear or cautiousness lingered within.

As the sodden earth beneath my bare feet fanned out into little craters with each step taken, I frowned. _'What am I doing here anyway?'_ I thought. I continued my little trek throughout the maze-like forest, soaked to the bone; I felt my patience thinning.

Reaching out to carefully push aside a few branches that were blocking my path, I peered through the small opening I made and froze, my heart skipping a beat.

Instead of whom I expected to see, someone else stood there in the little clearing. A certain gorgeous medic as a matter of fact. It was as if time had stopped for the time being. What the hell was he doing here?!

"Gabriel"

Although it wouldn't have been visible to the human eye, I could've sworn he shivered at the sound of his name being spoken. I eyed his every move like a hawk.

"Stephanie"

I moved onward and past the branches to reveal myself completely and continued to regard him. With a smirk, the vampire faced me and crossed his arms. He wore a white button down shirt and jeans.

"I'm surprised you actually came."

"What?" I asked and shook off the idiotic question. "What do you want? You're wasting my time."

He gave me a look a bit unsure of my understandings. It annoyed me to even look in his eyes. For one he must hate me for what I had said on the balcony but still I was curious to know what he was doing here. Did he want to see me for something? Whatever the case, he would get what he wanted tonight, even if it mean blood I had little interest in what he wanted for it must have been something stupid.

"My little Stephanie, after tonight you will come to find that I won't ever be wasting your time again."

Nearly snarling at being called "Little Stephanie", I merely glared in response. Looking as if he couldn't contain it anymore, he laughed.

"Ha ha. You're amusing I must say but perhaps it's because I haven't seen you in a while."

Taking a deep breath, I exhaled and looked to him expectantly. At first it was thrilling, nearly flattering how ironic it was meeting out here, but now I was tired, upset, and thoroughly soaked to the bone. Not a good combination for someone with a nagging annoyance. But I noted that I was listening, he continued on.

"You love my brother yet when the time comes you push him aside. Why is that so?" He asked, a bit of annoyance in his voice.

Sneering with disgust, I threw another glare his way. "I don't love him and I already told you that!"

I was lying to him and myself, but I didn't realize that I probably wanted him as bad as he did me. I wasn't fooling him though, nor anyone. With the way I acted around him and the way he was with me…well, it could've made me go crazy at any moment. I had been broken long ago by the people I had loved and trusted.

Pulling out a little diary from the bag he had in hand, shock slapped me in the face. 'How did he…?'

"You really are a bastard…"

With a laugh, he merely shook his head.

"Silly girl…"

In the next moment, my hand went down for the rock that was beside me to strike him, but another hand stopped mine.

"I wouldn't do that my dear…"

The masculine voice said lightly, almost tauntingly as his breath tickled the shell of my ear.

"Why shouldn't I? … I have every right!"

"You can take me down as much as you want…as long as I get to return the favor."

Feeling something inside me snap, I lifted my leg up and swung around swiftly in one fluid motion in hopes of delivering a semi-strong roundhouse kick I had learned in karate. Sadly though, it didn't connect as he caught my leg effortlessly.

"The standard …I must say I'm disappointed in you. I thought a girl of your caliber would wear something on the lines of…oh let's say…dressy?"

Crying out in frustration, I tore my body away from his grasp and backed up. Reaching down yet again for anything to defend myself, I found that my hand hit bare dirt. Looking to the enemy, I glared as he held the rock I was looking for.

"Looking for this?"

"Damn you!"

As he stared into my eyes, a smile slowly crept up onto his lips.

"1… 2… 3…"

Momentarily confused as he continued to count, I suddenly realized why he was doing so. He was giving me time to run.

By now, I didn't think I had any other option. I was defenseless just like a newborn kitten without its mother. I felt foolish now that I had been so cocky and decided to take the risk in coming out here, especially since I was still recovering.

Turning around quickly, I made a dash into the forest again, not caring where I went to, as long as it was away from there, away from where he was.

"Ten!"

I was so frustrated and with that tears stung in the corners of my eyes. Hearing the faint sound of rushing water, I brought my body in its direction without a moment's hesitation to think. Spotting the lake and waterfall, I ran around it and threw myself into the uneven sheet of falling water, landing roughly on my back in the cave hidden behind it.

Chest heaving up and down heavily, I lay there for a moment before rotating my body around and crawled on all fours towards the back of the cave. As my teeth chattered somewhat, I brought my knees up to my chest and leaned my head against the cold rocky wall. Eyeing the entrance, I suddenly felt dizzy. Deciding to push myself up, I found that I had to steady my swaying body. Something had to be done and I automatically wished that Dr. Integra were here to help even though he pissed me off so much. Lifting my head up once more to look at the entrance I gasped as his outline came into view. All I heard before she passed out was, "Found you."

…

Something was wrong and I knew that the moment my eyes fluttered open. Rapidly blinking to adjust to the dim lighting of the room, or cave, I became confused. _'Fire?'_ I didn't remember building one. Watching the flames flicker and dance, my eyes darted side to side, looking for the creator. That was when it all hit me. Gabriel.

Propping myself up somewhat, I couldn't help but notice that I was only in my underwear and bra.

"You're awake."

Immediately crossing my arms over my chest, a light shade of crimson dusted my cheeks as I folded my legs underneath myself. Surprise claimed me as I found myself staring at his bareback. I nodded my head although I knew he couldn't see the action, I spoke quietly, almost too softly for one to hear.

"Um…yea."

As he made a move to get up, I couldn't stop myself in time.

"Don't!"

Visibly tensing and freezing in his tracks, the vampire waited for a moment.

"Don't…please…" I repeated. Never had another male seen my body like this before and I felt so vulnerable especially since he was a vampire and much stronger and faster than I. I didn't really like that feeling either.

"You'll catch a cold if you don't get warm. I debated on holding you when you were out to share body warmth but seeing as I had already undressed you…I had the feeling that you wouldn't have wanted me to do much more. Well. You have to get warm one way or the other."

As he sat himself down once more, back still facing me, I debated my options. This was an awkward situation; yet, I felt no need to be scared. At least he didn't violate me in my sleep…well, aside from him undressing me that is.

The sudden change in his actions and personality bothered me though. I didn't care who he was; no one went from Mr. Nice Guy to predatory to Mr. Nice Guy again. Still though, I'd play his little game for now. Trembling violently, I decided that cuddling up to him wouldn't be so bad I had done it when I was little what could have change now? As much as I hated to admit it, I had a small crush on him all those years back and now that I had met up with him again…those feelings just resurfaced themselves a bit. I crawled over to him cautiously, as if he would've stricken me at any moment, I paused right behind him. With much uncertainty, I turned around and seated myself so that my back would touch his. My actions caused the vampire to flinch, but that was probably only because he didn't expect I would be so bold in such a short amount of time. In the end though, we merely sat there near the fire.

After sitting there for some time, the silence was beginning to kill me. What would I say though? Oh yeah, '_Gabriel, what's up? How's life treating you? Any unfortunate soul you've fed on lately?'_ As if.

For what seemed to be the 'who-knew-what-time' that day, Gabriel surprised me by breaking the silence first.

"Stephanie"

"…Yeah?"

"Why do you love my brother so much?"

Nearly bursting out into laughter, I had to cover my mouth. He had to be kidding. There was no way that…a man-slash-vampire such as he would talk about love like he did. It was just too ridiculous. Still though, he sounded as if he really wanted to know.

"I thought it might've been because he seemed protective but stubborn …but no. I don't think I have truly loved at all. What brought this question up?"

"I'm just curious."

"Oh."

I thought he must have been thinking 'So much for this conversation'. I put it down so plainly that it wouldn't even seem possible for someone to capture my heart. But that wasn't true.

"...and you?"

"What?"

"Have you ever loved, truly loved?"

The question probably took him by surprise because he turned suddenly eliciting a small gasp from me. He wrapped his arms around my frame which made me quiver before I looked up at him, a bright flame dancing within us and I could feel his burning brightly.

"I'm in love with my job as a doctor. That's all."

Slowly, yet ever so surely, he dipped his head down and stole a kiss from my lips. I felt him watching my reactions carefully, from when I resisted so stubbornly, to the way I began to respond hesitantly, when I shut my eyes and broke the kiss quickly.

I placed my fingertips atop my lips, as if feeling them to be sure. Sparing him a shocked look momentarily, I whispered quietly.

"…umm ok…"

With a feral snarl, I broke away from him and whirled my body around, lunging forward and knocking him over flat onto his back while blushing. Wrestling with one another for dominance, he me pinned beneath him in no time, not a trace of sweat upon his young features.

Glaring up at him defiantly, I lashed out and tried to kick him off but discovered that my legs were pinned as well.

"…Let me go."

"Will you calm down?"

"No! Get off!"

"I'm sorry then, I will not do so until you cease your violent actions."

Struggling beneath the vampire on top of me, I began to breathe irregularly, similar to the breathing pattern of one who is frustrated. And then, I stopped, realizing that my attempts of breaking free were fruitless. It was clear he was the dominant one here and always has been, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. As tears of anger spilled over my lashes and down onto my cheeks, he just couldn't stop from lowering himself to lap up the salty water, his tongue following the trail a tear would make back up to my eye. All the time, I merely lay there, caught up in some mysterious stupor. This all felt so wrong yet…so very right. No. I couldn't be thinking that I…wanted him. Could I?

"Why are you doing this…?" I muttered and turned my head away, effectively avoiding a kiss that look like it was to be placed on my lips. The enemy paused before lightly pressing his body on to mine, the mere action causing me to shudder. I hated feeling so vulnerable towards him, I couldn't resist against anything he did.

"_Just because…_" he whispered seductively into my ear, letting his free hand cup my cheek, gently turning my head in his direction. I looked into his eyes, my own widening a bit as I uncovered something in him. His dull yellow eyes seemed…tired and almost…lonely. Pressing his forehead against mine and locking our gazes together, he smirked.

"Just because I _can_."

His expression darkened and his eyes became predatory, the look sending a strange buzz through me. Suddenly, he was kissing me, his mouth moving possessively over mine, claiming me. I made a soft noise in the back of my throat when his tongue swept across the softness of my top lip before meeting with mine in a passionate play for dominance.

The way he handled me was not too rough but still placed power in his actions and I loved it, it made me _want_ to give in to him and for once in my entire life, I liked the feeling of being overpowered by another. It was…exciting. I never knew that a vampire like Gabriel would have it in him and it made the situation more tempting, despite the nagging feeling I felt somewhere in the back of my mind.

I wouldn't think about it at the time though and my vampire companion didn't seem to give me the chance anyway. He had broken our heated kiss only to place butterfly ones along my jaw-line and down the length of my throat where I had been bitten that night, before he paused at my collarbone.

Releasing the grip he had on my hands when I was no longer resisting him, he slid his hands underneath my back and lifted me to him. Practically straddling the male seeing as my legs were on either side of him, I blushed even more. Never had I been so…intimate with someone and I hadn't expected it to be Gabriel.

I nearly frowned when he stopped whatever he was doing; breaking out of the trance he had put me in. Noticing that he seemed to be lost in thought, I raised my hands up and carefully placed my fingertips on the side of his face. Snapping out of whatever reverie he was lost in, he caught my wrists in a bruising grip.

With a wince, I tried to pry my hands away from the source of pain but paused when I caught the reflection of something from the corner of the cave behind me through the glass eyes. Making it out to be a knife, a plan came to mind. I may have had a crush on him years ago but that didn't mean I would give in and lose my virginity to this asshole! Deciding that I would have to play his little game for now, I feigned confusion and hurt. When he loosened his grip on me the male sighed and let me hug him.

"I apologize, Stephanie, but you should know better."

I merely nodded in understanding and proceeded to do what I did. After disconnecting bodies, I turned back to him and tilted my head slightly as I examined him. He looked much better in dim light not that he didn't look good either way, I briefly thought before loosely wrapping my arms around his neck.

The mood was ruined and I felt irritated with myself for letting him do this. In an attempt to rekindle the flame between us, he slid a hand up my back slowly, making meaningless patterns as he made for my bra clasp. Deftly unhooking it, the male grinned at the sight that awaited him. This was so embarrassing and felt so weird especially since I had no experience with this type of interaction.

He kissed my upper chest while a hand played with my chest. Letting a hand sneak in between my legs, the doctor dipped his fingers underneath the elastic part of my underwear. I didn't know what the hell he had in mind which scared me a bit. What he was doing now nearly made me lose my mind and made it hard to concentrate on what was right and wrong. For the first time this night I looked into my pursuers eyes willingly, just as his brothers' they too were red.

_The plan…Stephanie…the plan… _a distant voice called out to me.

'_I can't do anything right now.'_ I thought as I gritted my teeth together. His mouth moved up and kissed me hard on the lips, traveling downwards as he placed kisses from my jaw to my neck then to my collarbone.

He traveled upwards to my neck, sucking at it as though he was going to devour my whole. I couldn't help but pant and moaned as he pressed himself further against me, weight pushing me into the rough floor. I twisted and writhed awkwardly as he fingered, rubbed, and toyed with the tiny organ that drove any female mad when handled the right way. My body heat was rising and I knew I as was as red as a beet and trembling, quaking in his grasp. I knew this had gone too far and was out of control.

He kept kissing my neck and before I knew what was happening his fangs were piercing the nape of my neck. I grabbed into his bare back drawing warm blood adding heat to our already hot bodies while muffling my scream as i nuzzled my face into his broad shoulder. It hurt so badly then I was flushed into numbness, as his powerful hands held my bare back. I was beginning to love this numb sensation and part of me wanted to stay in this state as close as I was to Gabriel.

"Why…?" I said shakily, nearly sobbing in frustration that I had lost complete control over the situation. Not that I had control in the first place… but somehow, I knew I could get out of this, I had to.

"Because I can" he replied panting above my shoulder. I pushed him hard and he hit his head against the hard rock floor. While he was momentarily paralyzed I stood up grabbed my tank top and ran.

I ran through the rain and through the forest. When I came to the street I put my tank top on which didn't really matter since I had no bra on and I was in my underwear. I ran until I got to the dorm building. I opened the door slowly and ran through the halls. I ran through a dark hall to find a figure that made me jerk to a stop.

'_Shit! Please don't be Gabriel!' _I thought as my pulse became erratic.

The figure took a step forward to where I could see his features and I gasped at the sight of him.

what will happen next? Hahaha I love cliff hangers


End file.
